Misc. Ramblings

A belated Happy New Year to y'all.

I'm back at work and there is still much to do so I gotta go.

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!

Here's my wallpaper for the week. It's a deep field mosaic image of the Orion Nebula.

Aloha!

Foo Bar. We'll probably never know for sure where the terms foo and bar came from, even though almost everyone has seen it used. But believe it or not, there is an RFC that tries to do exactly that. From World War II slang to comic strips to Chinese figurines, the authors (Eastlake, Maros, and Raymond (as in Eric S.)) do their best to find the answer to the question: How much foo can a man chew if a foo man could chew foo?

Job Interviews. Two words that send shivers through otherwise strong people. There are few situations more fraught with possibilities and dangers. But being prepared can make the difference between being hired and being among all those still looking for a job.

Part of the preparation process is being ready for the questions that you will be asked. Unless you are applying at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory the questions won't require you to be a rocket scientist to answer. But you if you don't anticipate the questions, it is difficult to answer them well. So herewith are the top 10 questions asked by employers during job interviews (with hints as to what is a good answer):

1. Why are you seeking new employment?

2. Where do you see yourself in 5 (or 10) years?

3. Why should we hire you?

4. What are your weaknesses?

5. What are your salary expectations?

6. How did you get along with your last boss?

7. Why do you want this job?

8. What are your strengths?

9. Tell me something about yourself.

10. Do you have any questions?

Work calls so I gotta go. In the mean time, MS deadlines for supporting its products:

• Internet Explorer 6 SP1 on Windows 98: 16-Jan-2004

• Internet Explorer 6 SP1 on Windows 2000 SP2/SP3:30-Jun-2004/26-Jun-2004

• Windows ME: Ended on 31-Dec-2003

• Windows 2000 Professional: 31-Mar-2005

Aloha!

A couple of good links from Ian Lind's site. The first is breaking news from the Onion about porpoises evolving opposable thumbs (in the same vein as the FOO BAR RFC).

HONOLULU-In an announcement with grave implications for the primacy of the species of man, marine biologists at the Hawaii Oceanographic Institute reported Monday that dolphins, or family Delphinidae, have evolved opposable thumbs on their pectoral fins.

"I believe I speak for the entire human race when I say, 'Holy f*ck,'" said Oceanographic Institute director Dr. James Aoki, noting that the dolphin has a cranial capacity 40 percent greater than that of humans. "That's it for us monkeys."

Thus far, all the opposable digits encountered appear to be fully functional, making it possible for dolphins-believed to be capable of faster and more complex cogitation than man-to manipulate objects, fashion tools, and construct rudimentary pulley and lever systems.

"They really seem to be making up for lost time with this thumb thing," said Dr. Jim Kuczaj, a University of California-San Diego biologist who has studied the seasonal behavior of dolphins for more than 30 years. "Last Friday, a crude seaweed-and-shell abacus washed up on the beach near Hilo, Hawaii. The next day, a far more sophisticated abacus, fashioned from some unknown material and capable of calculating equations involving numbers of up to 16 digits, washed up on the same beach. The day after that, the beach was littered with thousands of what turned out to be coral-silicate and kelp-based biomicrocircuitry."

The second is to the Spin of the Day site. Spin does its best to tell the story behind the story. For instance, a beef industry association hiring a PR firm to spin the news to say it was only one cow, the inspection system worked, and that we have a "firewall" against mad cow disease or the US Environmental Protection Agency insisting that toxic sludge is good for you.

Aloha!

The Feds swooped down yesterday and confiscated hundreds of deadly scales. Scales? You mean those balances that tell you how much something weighs? Yup, the very same. Federal agents stormed into 10 O'ahu convenience stores and confiscated the scales as part of its "war against drugs." The US Attorney, Ed Kubo, called it a "warning shot across the bow" to businesses that the Feds mean business.

The prosecutor noted that the federal penalty against selling "drug paraphernalia" is up to three years in jail and a $250,000 fine. To be fair, [insert disclaimer here] they also seized rolling papers and glass pipes but I have to wonder how this translates into fewer people on drugs. In my opinion, arresting these people makes for good news coverage and it's easy to tally up the number of items taken but, other than Federal officials, does anyone in their right mind think this will deter a drug addict from doing drugs? Does anyone, other than this Republican administration, think the way to deal with drug addicts is to try to keep them from buying rolling papers?

I'm sorry, but however well intentioned the prosecutor may be, he and his bosses are simply wrong headed about this. Let's try to get more drug treatment programs, let's try to provide a better education and living environment. Heck, even just sending addicts to jail is better than having the Black Helicopters(tm) coming to fight the war on scales, I mean drugs. Pathetic.

According to the roadmap, Firebird, the Gecko-based browser is almost set to rev to 0.8 (rev 1.6 if you need the Mozilla combination browser, email, HTML editor, IRC chat, and partridge in the proverbial pear tree). So, check its site every once in awhile as it should be out Real Soon Now.

Aloha!

Speaking of updates, the Linux-based firewall software I use, CoyoteLinux, is now in version 2.05. You may want to check out the changes and see if you should install it. Note that they haven't uploaded the Windows-based installer version yet so, for now, you need a fully installed Linux distribution to create the floppy.

I believe it was sharp shooter and fellow Daynoter Dave Markowitz who mentioned a secure FTP program called CoreFTP. If memory serves me, he mentioned it in relation to a problem he was having with another program called WS_FTP (now in release 8) being too fast for what he was doing.

While most people say you can never be too rich, too thin, or have an application run too fast, I guess there are times when this is so. In any case, CoreFTP recently updated their offering to version 1.3, fixing several problems and adding features, so you may want to check it out (especially as it is free and offers secure connections).

On the other hand, if you need a fast transfer program, you may want to check out WS_FTP instead. For you students or faculty members out there, Ipswitch makes a "lite" version that is free for personal use. If you qualify, you can download the free version here.

The lucky folks over at DesignTechnia have a review up of what may be the thinest laptop in the world - the Sony X505. It weighs in at just under two pounds (~910g) and is made of either nickel carbon or carbon fiber (your choice). The mini-laptop measures 10.07 x 8.19 inches (~256 x 208mm), and slopes from .38in (~10mm) thick in the front to .86in (~22mm) in the back. Yes, you read that right, at its widest it's less than an inch thick. Wow.

As with any extreme design, there are tradeoffs. A trackpoint replaces the usual touchpad, and it doesn't have an integrated DVD/CD drive, wireless LAN, or memory card slot. You can get external dongles to remedy these potential problems so you aren't completely left in the lurch but it is less convenient to use because of it.

The price for the grey market import is about $3,500 for the nickel carbon and call it $4,000 for the carbon fiber. As with all grey market items, there is no manufacturer's US warranty or support. But if you must have the absolute thinnest laptop, this may be the one to have. YMMV.

From ski wax to sun glasses coatings to digital displays to tennis racquet that are five times more rigid than current graphite racquets, nanotechnology is already here. Forbes magazine has a list of products that incorporate the technology.

I've got another Salary Commission meeting on Monday and I'm having another normal day getting ready for it so I gotta go.

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!

Kirk: (Closeup, sweat forming on brow.)Scotty, we need those engines back on line!

Wide-shot of engine room where sparks are flying.

Scott: Aye Captain, but the di-lithium crystals are failing and I canna' do anything about it!

There was a transformer failure in one of the high rise buildings downtown this weekend. In order to remove the transformer, electricity to much of downtown, including our building, was cut off. This caused all kinds of problems with our mechanical systems (no a/c) and computer systems (no voice mail or email).

Perhaps coincidentally, I'm having problems with my PC. My scanner has quite working although unplugging it and then plugging it back in has turned the scanning light on, it isn't scanning so I think I need to reinstall the drivers. In addition, I had to reinstall the PoPMail email filter to get it to start up. Who knows what else is not working. Oh well, just another normal day.

Aloha!

In the long tradition of public service announcements, the Seto Shack brings you this article on how to prevent Internet electrocution. Hats off to the folks at the Toque for sparking the debate on electrical security. YMMV, insert disclaimer here.

Aloha!

While I'm sure MS would like you to think that Internet Explorer is the ultimate in browsing the web, there are competitors out there and Netcaptor is yet another one of them. This browser has tabs (allowing you to have multiple pages open at the same time and to easily switch between them), pop-up suppression, and URL blocking (perfect for blocking everything from *.doubleclick.com). Check out the site for its other features. Netcaptor comes in two version, one free and one you pay for. Note that the free version comes with ads and the pay version costs $29.95USD.

No sooner does Microsoft announce the end of support for, among other things, Windows 98/SE, that it turns around and extends it through 2006 (see the article here). Thanks, apparently, to customers complaints, MS reversed itself and will provide security updates after all. This is a Good Thing(tm) as the article indicates there may be as many as 58 million people still using Windows98.

One barrier to reforming the public school system are some teachers who, perhaps full of hubris, think they know it all and that anyone else, other than a teacher, who would dare propose something couldn't possibly know anything. Given that assumption, it is no wonder that reform is so difficult for these teachers.

When it comes to computers, I find the majority of teachers know far less than their students. In fact, I find teachers some of the least proficient in basic computer understanding of any group I've ever met. I know of a PhD who, literally, has a hard time turning the computer on or off. While some teachers have learned to use PC-based applications, few understand the computer or the operating system that runs on it.

One example of this is found in a Texas Star-Telegram article where a 13-year-old middle school student was suspended for three days for learning how to send a text message over the school's computer network. The student learned how to do this dastardly act from his father. The command he used was net send.

First, lets be clear that the DOS box command net is but one of a series of tools (at the command line type in net help for the list of tools) that comes with Windows. Typically, they are used to diagnose network problems but, as is the case with the net send command, can be used for other purposes such as a crude form of instant messaging that creates very little network overhead.

To be fair, it is possible to mess things up using some of the net command tools. And given the inventiveness of children, it may be possible to cause problems using the net send command. But that's not what this student did. He sent one word and was suspended for three days.

How does this punishment fit the "crime"? Especially since, apparently, what he did is not in violation of any of the school's posted rules!

One of the most powerful dialectics of pedagogy is to test the environment by experimenting. That is, we learn by trying. We learn by doing things and seeing what happens. As we master these behaviors, we can move forward and test new hypotheses. This is not to say we can, or even should, experiment without limits. It is easy to fashion a situation in which unlimited testing will not teach anything because the experimenter will be dead. But that's not what where talking about here.

We're talking about a child, learning how to use a legitimate network-based tool, to send a message. The message he sent to the entire domain, not knowing it was going to the entire school, was "Hey!". For this he was suspended for three days.

What lesson are we teaching here? What is it we want our students to learn? Do we want students that are inquisitive and eager to learn or do we want automatons too afraid to touch a keyboard for fear of violating a rule that does not exist but will result in a suspension?

I quote below the full text of a chilling email sent from the student's teacher to the writer of the news article:

Mr. L., I want to communicate to you my concerns about some of the 'reporting' done by [the] Star-Telegram and my concern about an article I have heard you might be writing. Too often, people who do not know the real world of public education feel that they are the 'experts' who have all the solutions and that their opinions are as valuable as those who live in this world daily.

If you comment upon events that are reported to you by a parent and do not fully investigate those reports before you publish your article, then you are one of those people. I have not heard that you have attempted to contact those people who really know the situation.

I am speaking about one incident in the Birdville School District in which a student was expelled for tampering with the district's computers. Having been a computer teacher in the real world of public education for many years, let me say that suspension of students who are guilty of such tampering sends a message to all students that is beneficial and necessary.

Students should not be of the opinion that it is acceptable to abuse the privileges that are afforded them by the taxpayers. If they are allowed to experiment and do things on the computers that the teachers have not specifically given them permission to do, we would never get any computer education accomplished.

Hacking into a system should be highest on the list of tampering violations. I believe the other students are now aware that the district takes this seriously and will not tolerate such misuse of our equipment.

I invite you, parents, our state representatives, and anyone else that thinks they know how a teacher or a district should react to ANY situation to come live with us for a while -- be a substitute teacher for a few weeks and learn the real world of public education.

[Name deleted to protect the guilty]

I was a graduate student teacher for a semester about six months ago so I will take up her challenge:

1. Using the net send command to say "Hey!" is not hacking in either sense of the word. That is, it is neither an elegant coding algorithm solution to a problem nor an illegal break-in to a protected computer system.

2. Suspending a student for this action sends a powerful message. The message it sends is that authority is both absolute and unaccountable. That teachers and administrators, contrary to the litany of whining that we hear, have absolute power to destroy any possibility of constructive exploration and learning. That "violations" to rules that do not exist are mere technicalities. Students are second class citizens and do not have due process rights under the U.S. Constitution.

3. Some teachers lack of knowledge and understanding of basic computer systems seems to know no bounds. This must be dealt with either by learning from students or by reading books or by taking classes from others that are knowledgable about such things.

A wise person once said that the first step in learning is to understand what you don't know. If you know nothing else, know that you may have done a great disservice to your community in general and to this student in particular.

See the child's side of the story here.

Aloha!

For about half-an-hour yesterday we experienced some of the strongest winds since Hurricane Iniki came through a decade ago. Gusts up to 80mph were reported in some areas as a cold front moved across the state. Fortunately, as quickly as it came it went although there are still areas without electricity and many homes sustained damage to their roofs.

Aloha!

This article from NewScientist says spam, unwanted unsolicited email, counted for nearly two out of every three messages sent worldwide.

Fortunately, using two spam filters (SpamAssassin and PopFile), I never see the majority of it because I have SpamAssasin set to send it to dev/null. What spam makes it past there is filtered by PopFile and is automatically sent into a spam file where I can check it at my leisure. As noted in an earlier post, in a test of over 1,000 emails, the two filters were able to successfully filter over 97 percent of the drek.

Even MSN Hotmail, heretofore one of the bigger spam magnets around, has apparently instituted filtering. Such filtering is working very well and has cut down the number of spams getting through by at least 90 percent (just a guess but I think it's pretty close).

So for me [knocks wood], spam is just not a problem anymore.

MovableType is updated to 2.66. They have added some stuff to combat comment spam so you may want to take a look if you are using MT as your content management system.

1. If you ever unintentionally delete photos from your digital camera, all is not lost. Some, if not all, digital camera systems use FAT. If so, fire up your handy un-eraser (Norton, Fix-It, etc.) and un-erase the images.

2. If you've ever needed to rename a bunch of files, say those digital photos you just un-erased, you've probably used the DOS utility REName. But did you know Windows XP(tm) also provides a way to do something similar? In Windows Explorer, multi-select the files you want to rename. Press F2. The new name you type will be applied to all the files, plus an incremental number at the end.

   Windows XP adds (1), (2), (3) and so forth to the ends of the filenames you selected (preceding the dot and the extension). You can force Windows to start with a number of your choice by including it within parentheses in the name that you type. For example, if you enter Foo(10).txt, the additional files will be renamed Foo(11).txt, Foo(12).txt, and so on. Perhaps you'll want to use this to give your digital-camera photos meaningful titles, replacing filenames like DC0001.jpg with Lucy(10), Lucy(11), etc.

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!

I don't think this story on Adobe inserting government code into Photoshop has been given the publicity it deserves.

First, I need to disclose that I don't use Adobe products (except for Acrobat which is required at work). I don't use them because of their corporate culture that views their customers as criminals.

So it is not out of character for them to add code from BigBrother(tm) to ensure that you vill obey der rules. Honest people, of course, are not worried about having a private company partner with TheGreatSatan(tm) to monitor what you are doing with the software you purchased. Honest people are not concerned that TheBlackHelicopters(tm) can insert other code into programs to ensure the safety of OurHomeland(tm).

It's only the bad guys who would get upset about having what amounts to spyware running on their computers monitoring what you do so that you won't do anything wrong.

I don't think this guy has it right yet, but it's as good a start as I've seen on converting your car into the feel, if not exactly the look of a Star Wars A-Wing fighter. So far, he's just done some paint and a few add-ons. But I'm still waiting for someone who does the "Monster Garage" treatment the way it should be.

As itemed earlier, Mozilla 1.6 has hit the wire. They haven't updated the change log yet so I don't know what new/improved/fixed features they have but it's probably worth a looksee.

As of this writing, they have not revised Firebird but I assume they will Real Soon Now(tm).

I am hardly an HTML guru so it is easy for me to learn new stuff almost every day. One of the things I learned recently is that you can use CSS to, assuming a compliant browser, display a different mouse pointer. For example, hovering over any of the acronyms on this page should cause your mouse pointer to change to whatever you are using for "help".

Thanks to the diveintomark site for the code.

acronym, abbr { cursor: help; }

I know this is starting to sound like a broken record but I need to get going so I can work on Salary Commission stuff so I gotta go.

Aloha!

Microsoft announces Smart Personal Objects Technology (SPOT) based wrist watches.

Aloha!

I wonder why so many people are deluded into thinking they can sing? Forget about singing well, in my experience, most people can't sing. At all. Period. In fact, most people will never be able to earn a penny singing. And yet. And yet many people truly feel that they have talent. In fact, they have so much self-esteem that if anyone tells them that they don't sing well, then clearly the other person just doesn't appreciate their great gift.

Don't get me wrong, self-esteem is good. That is, self-esteem is good if it is based on overcoming difficult obstacles through hard work and thereby becoming excellent at what you do. For example, someone who has spent years honing their woodworking skills or needle point techniques or differentiating equations, and thereby becoming adept at these skills can take pride in doing their work well.

Of course, it's not only would be singers that are afflicted by this. One need only look at any college football team to find hundreds of people who think they have what it takes to be a professional. Or take a look at the Democratic Party presidential candidate hopefuls. Only one of them will win. Yet there they are, trying to get people to vote for them. But I digress.

On the other hand, someone who thinks they can be a professional singer, without spending any time learning how to do it well, may have a lot of self-esteem, but not be a good singer. Thus, I should not be surprised that tens of thousands of people will wait in line to be told they have no talent and should be doing something else instead of trying to be the next American Idol.

Perhaps we can blame it on some of our school systems that confuse self-esteem with mastery of a difficult subject. Where teachers somehow teach "self-esteem" for doing nothing worthy of self-esteem. Where rigorous testing is deleted and replaced with feel good group sessions where everyone bleats like sheep, while sitting on the floor, in a circle, trying to sing kumbaya.

Perhaps people don't understand, or are too lazy to care, that self-esteem should come as a result of mastering something difficult. That self-esteem should be based on reality, not delusions of grandeur. That in fact there are criteria to determine whether you can sing well and that if you don't meet those criteria you should not be surprised to be told you have no singing talent.

I have six words for people who don't have any talent, or have some ability but don't want to spend the time and effort to become good: Deal with it and move on.

Comments are temporarily closed while MovableType comes up with something more effective in combating comment spam. If you need to contact me, feel free to email me using the link in the column on the right.

Aloha!

To this day, many people don't seem to understand what the Watergate debacle was all about. While there are many ways of looking at the series of burglaries, wiretaps, forgeries, and obstruction of justice that spanned several years, I think one central lesson of Watergate was that the ends very rarely, if ever, justify the means. Even, given the context of the times, if you feel there are enemies everywhere trying to get you (sounds oddly familiar), it does not mean it is okay to employ "dirty tricks" to gain political advantage.

But perhaps the present generation needs to re-learn this lesson. This story in the Boston Globe, if true, says Republican staff members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee gained electronic access to confidential Democratic memos on a server shared by both parties. While the access may have been made possible through the error of a technician who set the permissions incorrectly, this does not relieve the staffers from responsibility. Think of it this way, if a bank employee inadvertently leaves the bank vault door wide open does not mean it is then legal, moral, or ethical to walk in and take the money therein. The money does not belong to you. Notwithstanding your ability to gain easy access to it. In other words, access does not mean you are authorized to take.

Perhaps as a way of blowing smoke, some Republican apologists are saying an electronic memo is not "property" and therefore can't be stolen. Hmmm, perhaps they better talk to their fellow travelers over at the RIAA because they would differ from their self-serving interpretation of law.

But the main point is, and the Republicans have not disputed this, is that documents were copied and that it was done over the period of at least six months and perhaps longer. In addition, some of said documents were given to columnist Robert Novak (yes, this is the same person who is under investigation for leaking the name of a CIA analyst).

Clearly, the taking of the documents were unethical. Whether the taking was also illegal is for others to decide. But the underlying feeling, on the part of the Republican staffers, is that they can do anything they want because the ends justify it.

A belated Gong Xi Fa Cai to all. Especially you monkeys out there, of which, I am one of.

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!

I don't know what to make of Co-Linux, but if it's for real, you may have a use for "running Linux on Microsoft Windows natively." I caution that I have not tried this (and most likely won't) but again, if you have a need to run Linux this way, it may be a solution. YMMV. Insert disclaimer here.

I have a Judicial Salary Commission meeting today so I gotta go.

Aloha!

There are pundits out there who are saying that the Democrats want the US to fail in Iraq so that they (the Democrats) can win in the November elections. Let's put that one to rest right now.

Democrats win on domestic issues not the results of foreign wars. Hence, if the concerns Democrats focus on are okay, that is, if the economy is doing well, if unemployment is not really out-of-line, the Republicans win.

Conversely, Republicans win during times of war or unrest. If anyone needs the "war on terrorism" to continue it is the Republicans. Remember how the country rallied round the President after September 11th? Well, if any one needs the fear that comes with war, whether in Iraq or elsewhere, it's the Republicans because they know as soon as the war ends, so do they.

Microsoft evangelist Robert Scoble has a post up of why you should buy anything else other than an Apple iPod(tm). You can read the article but, to me, it boils down to his saying, paraphrasing here, use our (i.e., Microsoft's) DRM rather than Apple's.

While I think he makes a good case about how you can find more MS compliant players out there, as compared to Apple, I say why use either of their proprietary, crippled software? Why lock yourself into a DRM jail that keeps you from using music you PAID for?

Why not use Ogg Vorbis or the almost universally accepted MP3? If you had music in these formats you could probably listen to them on even more players than either of the proprietary formats of Apple and MS combined.

However, as noted in an earlier post, you can convert from Apple's proprietary DRM format by burning an audio CD. This process creates CDA tracks which can then be ripped by your favorite software into whichever format you like and therefore playable on whatever you like. I don't know if you can do something similar with Microsoft's offering. If you you can, drop me a line using the email link over on the right column.

But the bottom line is, in my opinion, it is a false choice to say pick Microsoft's DRM over Apples' because you can find more players compliant with MS when you can find even more that are compliant with MP3. YMMV. Insert disclaimer here.

Aloha!

It's a small victory over the forces of evil but an AP story says a "federal judge has declared unconstitutional a portion of the USA Patriot Act that bars giving expert advice or assistance to groups designated foreign terrorist organizations."

Every little bit helps but time is running out. It is only a matter of when, not if, the new Patriot Act III - The Empire Strikes Back, makes its debut. So even as the courts slowly whittle away at the nearly fully operational Battle Star(tm), the Dark Side(tm) moves forward.

ABC New's John Stossel had a recent TV program in which he debunked common myths (Can you bunk a myth? - ed.). Some of these public policy questions will probably make you mad because it is something you believe in. If so, just move on. I'm not here to debate them. Go talk to ABC News.:

1. Getting cold can give you a cold. Nope, coming in contact with a virus or bacteria can cause a cold or the flu, not the temperature.

2. We have less free time than we used to. Compared to when and free to do what? Since 1965, a researcher has been studying the subject and found "we're working less, marrying later, having fewer children, and retiring earlier." What we do with our free time is watch hours of TV. Stop watching TV and you'll find you have plenty of time to do other things.

3. American families require two incomes. This one depends on what standard of living you want, but not necessarily need. It's about priorities and what you think is important.

   "Fifty years ago, the average family in the United States had one car. Today the norm is two or three. Houses have more than doubled in square footage, and shoppers just seem to spend as much as they want."

   "Most families don't have to have both parents working. They do this by choice. People have decided they want to maintain a very high income lifestyle on two incomes to have all the things to keep up with the Joneses,"

4. Money CAN buy happiness. This one may be true if you are making less than $50,00USD. But it seems that over that amount, having more doesn't bring more happiness.

5. Republicans shrink government and Democrats make it bigger. You've all heard the Republicans say BigGovernment(tm) is not the answer, it's the problem. The truth is, Republicans have doubled the size of government since they took control of Congress. No, this is not as a result of the "war on terrorism." It's the result of the war on your pocket book. Congress has expanded almost every department while at the same time sending home pork barrel projects to their home district. Strict fiscal responsibility? Give me a break.

6. The rich don't pay their fare share of taxes. According to the IRS (you decide whether to believe them - ed.), "the richest 1 percent of taxpayers already pay 34 percent of all income taxes."

7. Chemicals are killing us. This is one of those areas where we don't do a cost benefit analysis. On one hand, we fear everything will give us cancer (which it may, in high enough doses). But on the other hand, what is the cost of not using chemicals like DDT? In Africa, the answer is two to three million people a year may die because they can't use DDT to kill the mosquitos that carry disease. While I'm not saying we should flood the world with chemicals, I am saying we need to rationally determine what are the costs and what are the benefits. Nothing, including pure oxygen or pure water is always safe in all doses. Hence, banning all chemicals will not make us "safe." Use chemicals rationally and at the lowest effective dose and the benefits will be greater than the costs.

8. Guns are bad. Based on this myth, "gun control" laws were passed to do back ground checks, to have waiting periods, and outright bans on certain types of guns and ammunition. The problem is, the Centers for Disease Control could not find any positive relationship between these laws and violent crime. In other words, these laws, which reduce or eliminate freedom of choice, don't make us safer. In fact, the only thing felons fear is an armed citizenry who will use these arms to protect themselves and their families. Let's be clear, laws don't make us safer, the police don't make us safer, and the FBI doesn't make us safer. Gun toting citizens make us safer.

9. We're drowning in garbage. Perhaps this one needs to be defined better. Some places are drowning in garbage but others are looking to make money from taking your garbage. The problem is economically getting the garbage from where it is produced to where it is wanted.

Aloha!

Buying a new car ranks right up there with pulling teeth when it comes to ranking what people like to do. But at some point, most do (buy a new car, that is).

One of the reasons people don't like buying a new car is the confrontational atmosphere that pervades the experience. It's you against the dealer: you are trying to get the lowest price and they are trying the opposite.

As a response to this, some dealers have converted over to what is called "no hassle" pricing. That is, the price listed by the dealer, usually less than "list" price, is the price of the car. You don't need to haggle and, indeed, it wouldn't make any difference if you did. Thus, confrontation is eliminated and the customer should feel more comfortable about coming in and buying a car.

The problem is, at least here, it isn't working (we'll see later that a variation on this may, but I'm getting ahead of myself). A couple of local dealers have tried no hassle pricing. One got all kinds of government and consumer awards. It's now out of business for lack of customers. The other is barely hanging on while the high pressure dealers are raking in the money.

Why is this? Don't people want to buy a car without spending hours hassling with a salesman or saleswoman? Don't people feel demeaned by the whole process and do their best to avoid talking with sales personnel?

I was reflecting on this situation after having read "Confessions of a Car Salesman" from Edmunds.com and decided maybe it's because we feel lucky.

Think of it this way - many people like to gamble, or at least many people like to win. Yet many people will gamble knowing that the "house" has the advantage and that if they gamble long enough they will lose. But people still gamble, perhaps because they feel lucky. Or they feel they have a sure fire system that can beat the odds. Or that they are just so much smarter than the dealer and will trick him or her.

But, they are wrong. Most people (something like 99.99 percent) who gamble will not win. In fact, gamble long enough and you will not only lose, but you will lose a lot (hundreds, if not thousands of dollars).

I think such is the case with buying a car. Most people would rather gamble by trying to haggle with a professional who is much better prepared than you and maybe get a lower price than the no haggle lot. But you are wrong and you will pay thousands of dollars more because of it. You will not "get lucky" and win a lower price than the no haggle price. You will not outsmart the dealer. But there may be a system that can help raise the odds.

The system is called the Internet. People can now shop for the car of their dreams while sitting at home. While the laws in Hawai'i don't let you actually buy the car over the Internet (although your state may), you can nonetheless find the make and model you want displayed with its price. In addition, you can check places like Edmunds.com and get the "invoice" price of most makes and models. This gives you important information. Information you can use, should you feel lucky and decide to go head-to-head with a sales professional rather than buying via the Internet. YMMV. Insert disclaimer here.

Aloha!

I see that a new Federal Trade Commission regulation goes into effect today requiring telemarketers to display their company name and phone number on Caller ID devices. Up to now, telemarketers would block the display of their names so you would not know who was calling.

Like spam, expect the company names to change to something you would normally want to answer rather than their real name. In addition, I guess the new rule is why I got three telemarketing calls over the last week when I haven't had any for months.

They too slipped the the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God...

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!

The battle against comment spammers seems to be never ending. The latest craze is to flood a MovableType based site with comments or trackback pings, similar in effect to a DDoS attack. MT responded with a change that attempts to throttle the number of comments received over a period of time. Ironically, installing MT-Blacklist, which is an attempt, albeit not the most robust, to stop comment spam, inactivates the throttling code. But I digress.

This site attempts to show how to get these two working together and offers links to other resources to help reduce, but not eliminate the problem. I guess this is the best that can be hoped for, short of turning off comments completely.