Misc. Ramblings

Things are getting really interesting around here. As the fiscal year draws to a close [What a tired old phrase that is. In fact, what does it mean to draw something to a close? - ed.], people are scrambling to find money to fund their projects. I can't go into the why of the problem but I can tell you it ain't in my area.

Aloha!

I upgraded by test server from PC-BSD 1.0 to 1.1 last night. PC-BSD makes upgrading a snap. All I had to do was download one file, double click on that file, and a short time later, I had upgraded to the newest version with everything I had installed earlier still working. Heh! Now that's what I call an upgrade.

UnderXandros, it essentially copies your home directory and places it in a sub-directory while it deletes everything else. Hence, any software installed anywhere else, which means all of your software, is deleted. In addition, any changes you've made to any configuration files are also deleted. This is not what I call user friendly. Perhaps the newest version of Xandros, whenever that ships, will make things easier. But as things stand, "upgrading" Xandros is not. Upgrading , that is.

I also tried upgrading my Kubuntu 5.10 PC to 6.06LTS. However, I think, because I had included non-Kubuntu software, the upgrade failed miserably. By that I mean the install ran, but when I rebooted, all I got was an error message saying the kernel was in a panic [Such a colorful use of the word. I can see it now, kernels everywhere are in a panic and only TomCruise(r) can save the word! Run! Run for you lives. But I digress - ed.].

So, I will reformat the drive and install 6.06LTS on its own rather than trying to upgrade from 5.10. Sigh. It's a good thing I didn't have anything of importance on that drive. You might want to do a back up prior to upgrading any system, including those based on *nix.

Have a Great Weekend, Everyone- Aloha!

So, I've given up ever finding a micro-ATX computer case that meets my requirements for my media center PC. Those requirements include an industry standard ATX power supply and two 5.25-inch and one 3.5-inch external drive slots (DVD/CD, VFD, and floppy/multi-media cards).

You wouldn't think a case like this would be hard to find, but it is. At least it is if I want something with decent quality or sane price. So I broke down and bought an Antec NSK 4400. It is a "mini"-tower case, includes a standard ATX power supply and has more than enough externally accessible drive slots. But, it's bigger than I wanted and, of course, I wasted some money by buying a micro-ATX motherboard when I could have bought just about any other standard ATX size.

Into the case is a 7200.9 Seagate 250GB hard drive and a NEC 3550A DVD/CD burner. The NEC has a story to it. I had intended on installing it in the bottom of three open slots but found that it was a little too long to fit there. It seems the back of the drive hits part of the motherboard so I have to move the burner up to the middle slot of three. I could have ordered another shorter drive (Benq makes one that would have been short enough) but not wanting to waste any money, I just moved the drive up. But be aware that some drives are longer than others and if things are tight in your case, you may wish to check on the dimensions available for what you want to install.

For analog TV tuners, I went for the ATI T550Pro because it has gotten good reviews. The down side is it is relatively expensive, but at $90USD, not decidedly so. I haven't yet decided on which HD tuner to get. What I want is something that has a CableCard slot built in. But, as far as I can see, none seem to be available. What we do have is rather expensive and still beta level when it comes to decoding Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) digital cable signals (I don't want to spend all this money only to get over-the-air HD, which there is very little of out here in the middle of the Pacific). So digital cable it has to be.

I'll be spending my time this weekend installing this stuff and seeing if I can get everything configured and working. I am not optimistic that it will all JustWork(tm), but, I guess, it will make for good reading, what ever happens.

Another Monday, another all day meeting.

I downloaded and tried to install Kubuntu 6.06 yesterday. The install seemed to go well but then stalled. I don't know why it did since I don't sit around watching the screen when these things runs. When I have the time, I'll take a look and see if any error messages appear when the install stops.

Aloha!

Yes, I know, everyone is running around talking about 6-6-06 but being the curmudgeon that I am, I wanted to commemorate the sacrifices of the soldiers that stormed the beaches of Normandy, France during World War II (as we Yanks commonly refer to it).

Although every man who took part in the invasion deserves our thanks, I especially wanted to honor those who, through their unswerving attention to duty, honor, and courage, above and beyond what was expected, earned the Congressional Medal of Honor on that day. Their stories are recounted at the US Army site:

Carlton W. Barrett

John E. Butts

Charles N. Deglopper

Walter D. Ehlers

Robert G. Cole

Arthur F. Defranzo

John D. Kelly

Jimmie W. Monteith, Jr.

Carlos C. Ogden

Frank D. Peregory

John J. Pinder, Jr.

Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.

The CCNY Libraries site has a listing of D-Day resources that may be of interest to those who wish to know more about the events of that day.

Aloha!

The war in Iraq is proving unpopular with the public. It is also proving to be unpopular with at least some of the soldiers ordered to fight there.

Although this officer, by the name of Ehren Watada, is not unique in his opposition to the war, he has decided to refuse orders to proceed to Iraq.

Talk about balancing competing principles. On one hand, the military must enforce discipline. That is, orders must be carried out. Not necessarily without question, but they must be carried out. If discipline is not enforced, people may die.  This is not a theoretical concern fit only for philosophical discussions. For example, in times of war, if someone is ordered to transport ammunition to a location, something that can be dangerous, but refuses to do so, those who need the ammunition may be killed by the enemy for want of that ammunition. It can and is life or death.

On the other hand, what happens if the soldier believes an order is illegal or immoral? I'm no lawyer and I certainly don't know military law but does a soldier owe a higher allegiance to God or the Constitution? For example, if a soldier is ordered to round up everyone who is a Jew, place them in a concentration camp, kill them, and then take the gold fillings from their teeth, should those orders be carried out?

During the Nuremberg Trials, one of the defenses used by the Nazis was that they were simply following orders. Discipline, they said, must be kept. You must obey orders. For the most part, these people were not monsters. They were, to a large extent, just like you or I. But they were faced with a terrible moral choice: follow orders or take the consequences. Many followed their orders. It is what they were trained to do and is what they did.

I don't know for sure what I would do if I were in the boots of a soldier who believed the war he was being ordered to was illegal and immoral. I pray that I never have to face that choice because I fear I would fail to do the right thing.

The question is, what is the right thing?

Disclosure: In the case of some conscientious objectors, which as a Seventh-day Adventist, I am, I am opposed to bearing arms during time of war. However, and I want to make this clear, it does not mean I would not serve. I would be proud to serve as a medical corpsman (as did this man who earned the Congressional Medal of Honor for his bravery in the face of enemy fire). But I would not seek out war, nor would I break the Commandment against killing. To do so would be counter to the way I was raised, the way I believe, and the religion I follow.

In this case, the officer is not a conscientious objector. He says he is not opposed to all wars, just the one in Iraq. I can't see into his heart so I don't know if he is telling the truth. But I believe he will be severely judged and may have to accept a steep penalty for his choice.

Aloha!

For the first time, I powered on my new media center PC last night. All the hardware seemed to be okay so I started installing Windows MCE 2005. That's when it all went wrong and this became a religious experience.

My first problem was partioning the drive. I've been using Linux for so long that I forgot that, if you want to partition the drive in Windows, it's best to do it before installing.  What I've done in the past is to boot off of a DOS disk, run fdisk to create the partitions (without formatting), and then run the Windows install.

If you don't, Windows XP, bless all Microsoft programmers, will gladly partition your drive, but not format both partitions. Then, perhaps because I have my DVD burner on ATA primary and my hard drive on SATA primary, assigned drive G: to my hard drive, not C: as you would think it should be. Sigh.

During the install, it asked me to insert the CD for Windows XP Service Pack 2. Well, bless all Microsoft executives, I didn't happen to have a copy of SP2 handy and why should I? Why shouldn't it be included in the Windows install itself? Nowhere in the scant documentation included does it say you have to have SP2 on CD before you can install Windows MCE. Yes, I know, MCE is an OEM edition so, perhaps, MS has double secret instructions just for OEMs. But I still don't see why, when MCE already comes on two CDs, bless all Microsoft accountants, why I have to have SP2 on a separate CD.

Then, since you have to install the Nvidia drivers for sound, video, and network card before they will work (just like you have to with all the Intel motherboards I've ever installed) and, bless all Microsoft programmers, you can't install those drivers until after Windows is completely installed, Windows can't get sound, video, or the network connection working. Although the default video driver at least allows to see what you are doing, there's no sound and no network access.

What is even stranger, during the install, Windows tried to use the "1394" firewire bus as a network card. You can even look at it in Device Manager and the firewire bus will be identified as a network card.  No amount of trying to get Windows to switch to the built in network card has, so far, worked. Sigh.

Since Windows tries to use the firewire bus as a network card and, bless all Microsoft programmers,  it refuses to use any other, networking is not. Working, that is. This is even after installing the Nvidia driver for their built in network card it still doesn't work. I may try disabling firewire in the BIOS to see if that will help. I did try disabling and then uninstalling the firewire network card in Windows Device Manager but that didn't seem to help. Sigh.

Now, it is entirely possible that this problem is a result of Nvidia's network driver since I see on various forums all kinds of problems with their NICs. But maybe not. I can't tell at this point what the problem is.  What I may also do is disable both firewire and the built in network card in the BIOS and just use a PCI Ethernet card. Sigh.

Lord willing and the 'crick don't rise, I will try installing again tonight and will let you folks know how things went tomorrow.

Aloha!

To coninue the sage of installing Windows Media Center Edition 2005 from yesterday, I had a copy of Service Pack 2 for Windows XP at work so I brought that home, and re-installed Windows MCE 2005. As a brief review, during the install, Windows MCE requires files found on the SP2 CD. I don't know why this would be so, but it is. Unfortunately, the files the install requires apparently weren't on the SP2 CD that I had (which I got directly from MS).

So, I downloaded SP2 from the MS website. Unfortunately, the download is in the form of an executable, not an ISO image file that would create a CD. I seem to recall that if you use the special incantation, while facing Redmond, you can create from the executable the files required. However, I don't remember where I saw that and didn't feel like trying to Google it.

Even more unfortunately, running the SP2 executable creates the files in a temporary directory. Said directory is erased after the SP2 installs. Since the MCE install was looking for files, not an single executable and since the files created by the executable exist only while the SP2 executable is being run, I was kind of stuck.

I first tried running the SP2 executable on my laptop and before ending the install, I copied the temporary files to another directory. I then burned those files to a CD. Unfortunately, the directory structure created by the SP2 executable goes deeper than the maximum allowed under the standards for CDs (Joliet and ISO). Hence, when I tried to use the CD in the MCE install, MCE could not read the CD. Sigh.

My second try was to burn the SP2 executable to CD, let MCE run to conclusion without the needed files, then when MCE booted up, copy the executable to my D: partition. Once there, I ran the SP2 executable, copied the temporary files to another directory on D:, then rebooted and re-installed MCE. When MCE got to the point where it asked for the SP2 files, I pointed the install to the D: partition directory where it found the files and the install continued on. Yes!

That is, it continued on until it said it could not find hscsp_w3.cab. Sigh. I paused the install while I went back to my laptop and searched for the file. I found it in the SP2 directory /i386/ip/hscsp_w3.ca_. Okay, I went back to the MCE install and pointed it to that file on the D: drive. The install then continued until an error came up saying it couldn't find Oobedisk.htm. Sigh. Back to the laptop to look for this file. I found it in /i386/new/oobedisk.ht_. Back over to the the MCE install, point it to that directory on D:, and Bob's your uncle, the install went to completion.

This time, after the install rebooted and I installed the Nvidia driver for the network card, I had Internet access. MCE still had an Internet connection for the firewire bus but that didn't seem to matter and I disabled it in MCE.

After six hours over two days, there is still much to install before my MCE will be a fully operational battle star computer, but at least I have Windows itself installed and, I think, working. Next up are the drivers for the analog TV tuner card and the VFD. More when I know more.

Note: Monday is a state holiday to commemorate the Hawaiian who, by force of arms, invaded, conquered, and united all the Hawaiian islands. So, no post on Monday.

Have a Great Weekend, Everyone - Aloha!

No, that isn't the half-time score of game one of the National Basketball Association finals. It is the number of US Senators who voted against and for the bill commonly referred to as the Akaka bill.

As I predicted months earlier, it did not pass. The fate of this bill, intended to begin a conversation over the governance of the Hawaiian peoples, was sealed when conservative Republicans took power years ago. To be fair, even with Democrats, this would have been a difficult road to travel, but with Republicans in Washington, there is no hope that Hawaiians will receive justice from Congress.

Some say it may be foolish to believe we will ever receive justice through a ha'ole (literally, those without "ha", the breath of life or spirit foreign) system. I don't know if I would go that far, but the MorningPaper rightly, I believe, opines that the bill was but a pawn to be sacrificed by the Republicans in their campaign to get their ultra-conservative base solidly behind them for the coming elections.

For example, it was over the last few days that Republicans forced a vote on a Constitutional amendment to ban same sex marriage and a bill to repeal the estate tax. Two issues near and dear to Republicans. The Republican leadership knew what the outcome of the votes would be but wanted everyone on record so they could make political points with their base. So the timing of the Akaka bill vote was probably not a coincidence.

Having made their choice, it at least finally puts to rest the fallacy that our Republican governor, because she is a Republican, has the ear of  Congress and the President (who also came out against the bill). Clearly, she has been duped by the Republicans in Washington and has now been thrown in the trash like yesterday's newspaper. Clearly, her selling out to the President by hiring his fellow Texas Republicans as tax payer funded "consultants", at extremely high pay and perks (in one case, I understand tax payers are paying for a consultant to fly to and from her home on one side of the island while she chooses to live on the other side, and by doing so, depleted funds for official travel for all employees), in pork barrel numbers never seen during any Democrat Party administration, has not and will not result in consideration of Hawaiian needs.

I have no idea what Hawaiians should now do. I do believe that if we do nothing, Republican ha'oles will continue to make it their mission to hurt us economically and spiritually to ensure we are never able to govern ourselves. I also believe, whatever we do, looking to Republicans, here in Washington Place or in Washington, D.C. is not the answer. Hence, we may need to, as some are saying, make this a state's rights issue by acting locally and beginning the process of self-governance without the approval of those currently in Washington.

In responding to the comment made earlier, I was reminded of the list of charges made against King George III, then the king of England, in the U.S. Declaration of Independence. It seemed all too familiar in light of current events. Read them for yourselves and decide.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

I wrote the following email to respond to a comment to my post of this morning on the Akaka bill. Unfortunately, he did not leave his name nor working email address (it bounced back with a 550 error). Hence, I've published my response to his comment here:

Thank you for the correction on the etiology of haole. Although there is no accepted alternative to this derivation, I agree the one I used may be in error.

I guess we disagree on all other points. First, there are various definitions of sovereignty but in and of itself, it refers simply to being "self-governing" [see Oxford English Dictionary]. Hence, whether the Hawaiian peoples, with the advice and consent of all voting citizens in the state of Hawaii, choose a monarchy, republic, or some other form of self-government is not the point. The point is being able to choose how to be self-governed.

To focus on un-named "activists" and then to paint their words as applying to all is to over reach by several orders of magnitude. Such people, if they exist, do not speak for me.

Finally, if you are Hawaiian, that does not mean you would necessarily be required to be part of this new entity. Some may wish to be, some may not, some may wish to be under both a new entity and the present US Constitution (as I believe is the case of people with dual citizenships). As for me, I've said it before and I'll say it again, I would not give up my US citizenship nor the protections found in the US Constitution (would it be well if the President would stop breaking the Constitution). But again, the point is being able to choose.

Some very wise men once wrote:

"Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,-- That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

Site note: Over the years, many people have left comments without using their actual names and/or working email addresses. Up until now, I've not penalized them because I felt the greater good was served by allowing a free exchange of ideas. I have re-thought that stance and have instituted comment moderation. If you are unwilling to leave your real name and email address, it would be best not to leave a comment either. Henceforth, all comments left by non-authenticated users will be held for moderation. It is unfortunate that I've had to make this change but so it goes. If this doesn't work out, I will be forced to close all comments.

So after getting Windows MCE 2005 installed, the next step is to get the TV tuner (an ATI Theater 550 Pro) and Vacuum Fluorescent Display (M-Play 202 Plus from VlSystem, a Korean company) configured. Unfortunately, as with my problems with getting Windows going, this was not going to be easy tasks.

The TV Tuner, which was recently announced will be superseded by the 650 Pro, is advertised as being compatible with MCE. However, out of the box, that's not true. The tuner comes with two CDs. One has the driver and something called Cyberlink PowerCinema (an MCE clone) and the other has a suite of applications called Cyberlink DVD Solution. Installing just the driver from the first CD and then trying to run MCE failed with an error saying the decoder was either missing or not working. After installing PowerCineman, the tuner still didn't work with MCE (got a tuner not configured error, and yes, before you leave a comment, I did configure the tuner, several times) but did work with PowerCinema. So I could watch TV, but only through this application and not through MCE.

I decided to install the second CD's set of software but ran into a problem. The install requires a product key. Said key was not included in the package. I don't know if this is an oversight or this is how this Taiwanese company does business. In any case, by reading the FAQ at the PowerColor site I found the key and installed the second CD. At that point, the tuner started working in MCE.

I can't say for sure if the two events are related, but it seems so. If so, then I have to wonder why the second CD's software is required and why they didn't include the product key.

With the tuner working, I started on the VFD. The single page instructions that comes with the product doesn't give much help on installing the software. This is unfortunate because the software does not seem to be designed specifically for the hardware. In this case, the VFD uses a USB connection for power and communications. But for whatever reason, the software is configured to search for and use a serial port, and will configure itself to com 4, even if it doesn't find any serial ports. Even uninstalling the serial port in Windows doesn't stop this software from configuring itself for serial port use. A word of warning, I tried disabling the serial and parallel ports in the ASUS motherboard BIOS. Upon rebooting, the motherboard locked up and required the removal of the backup battery and setting a jumper to restore the default factory settings. Do not try this at home.

If you go to the VlSystem web site, they have a little better instructions. The task of getting the software configured, however, is made difficult by the Korenglish translation. For instance: "A banner of installation comes up inserting for install CD." Or "After buying our products, you should be installed its USB driver so that PC can be recognized any products on the Windows before installing MHC (Media Home Center). It's a little bit difficult for some users to catch the USB driver." You figure out what all that means but it is a little bit difficult to understand with this says.

Essentially, as I understand it, you first have to install the USB driver for the 202 Plus. Unlike all other Windows programs, you do not click on the setup file found in the appropriate directory. You instead click on the file called "Preinstaller".  

Next comes the VLSystem USB Composite Device. And finally, the M.Play driver. Having followed the directions, you will now have two instances of the M.player driver application installed. Eh? Yes, that's right, two copies. One will be configured for USB and the other for serial port. I've tried uninstalling or disabling the serial port version,as per the instructions, but it keeps automatically coming back. So for now, I'm just living with the fact that the serial port version will try to find a serial port and then fail and end execution. After that, the USB version will work just fine. Obviously, this VFD is not recommended.

At this point, I'm done installing and configuring MCE. Even though I had planned on getting an HD-TV tuner, I don't know if I will. At first, I was going to get one with built in digital QAM support so I could view non-encrypted HD cable. However, I have since found, and I could be wrong, that there is only one such channel on our local Oceanic Time Warner cable system. Thus, it might make more sense to get an over-the-air tuner since, as I understand it, there are several local stations broadcasting in HD. The best solution is one that does not exist - a tuner with a CableCard slot. However, due apparently to fears of piracy on the part of the MPAA/RIAA, the chances of a digital tuner card with a built in Cablecard slot is practically nil. Maybe they will come one day, maybe not. Hence, for now, I'm not getting any HD tuner card. A pox on all their houses. Hawk, spit.

Having spent all this time on getting MCE up and running, what do I think? Well, if I had to do it all over again, I don't think I would. I think I would just install Kubuntu and be done with it. Although, as JHR has said, I've learned a lot about MCE, I'm not sure it was worth the trouble.

Aloha!

Being a judge is many times a thankless job. Thank goodness there are those who are willing to do it anyway. But when such people are shot by those who disagree with their opinions, it gets that much tougher. I mean, what do you say to a prospective candidate? "Oh, by the way, other related duties include getting shot by those who disagree with you?"

A Reno, Nevada judge was shot yesterday. A "person of interest", who happens to have had a divorce case before the judge, is being sought.  Last I heard, the judge is in stable condition so thank God for that. But we need to remember that there are people out there who will use violence against judges. So, the next time you have to go through a magnetometer at the court house door, know that it's there for a purpose and not just to make life difficult for you.

Xandros announced its new Xandros Desktop Home Edition and Home Edition Premium. The release date is next week Wednesday, June 21st. Among other features, Xandros says they will have read and write access to NTFS partitions, something missing from previous editions.  No word on pricing nor when/if other editions (like a business or educational version) will be available.

I'm no lawyer but can a female Broadway dancer be fired for having breasts that are too large? The article says the dancer, who was a "C" cup, allegedly grew to a "D" cup. She says she was then harassed and fired based solely on her enlarged breasts.

In this article, it seems a Chinese female TV news broadcaster was suspended for taking part in a women's breast cancer public health awareness advertising campaign in which she appears topless (her breasts are covered by her hair). If you're doing a campaign involving breast cancer awareness, it seems logical to me that you would want to show the body part in question. [As opposed to say, showing her frickin' feet, for example. - ed]

Sorry, but this just makes me so frustrated that this bull still goes on. Women's breasts, of any size, are beautiful. Why are we firing or suspending people because of them?

Why aren't we firing President Bush for being the head of a federal government intent on grabbing power from the states, the Legislative branch, and the Judicial branches of government unlike any administration - ever, intent on spending money faster than any administration - ever, intent on hiring as many unqualified friends at salaries never heard of during any administration - ever?

Sorry, our regular programming will return momentarily.

Aloha!

Although many people will put up with a lot of guff, there comes a tipping point in which an avalanche of change is precipitated by a single event. I don't know if this is that event, but it could be.

First, MS included a non-security related program to be part of the critical automatic security downloads, but said next to nothing about it.  Then, when word about it got out, MS admitted the program was actually what is commonly referred to as betaware. That is, it was still being tested so, by definition, the program could cause problems for users. Although, it appeared to MS, that it was safe to release to millions of people without informing them of its pre-release level of finish. Then it came out that this program "phoned home" each and every day. Some people questioned whether this behavior didn't mean the program is what is commonly referred to as spyware. The company then admitted that yes, it did phone home but that the EULA was sufficient consent and, in any case, it wasn't spyware. Then it came out that no, the EULA said no such thing and that there was no informed consent.

From all this I can only conclude that Microsoft is clearly at war with itself and its customers.  One part of MS (I'll call them the Scobletarians) want to be good cyber citizens. But the part that is winning (I'll call them the Others), and seems to be in control, is the part that talks out of both sides of its mouth (as it were). 

The Scobletarians want to create trust, because it makes good business sense, by being transparent and honest. The Others want to be secretive and to treat their customers like cattle to be rounded up and herded in the direction of their choice because, they apparently believe, this will ensure their continued dominance in the field.

The Others are wrong. Making it more and more difficult for their customers to do their jobs only drives these same customers to alternatives. In addition, rather than raising prices for its next version - called Vista, or adding more DRM, or adding more hoops to put their customers through to prove to that they have not stolen what they have already paid for, does not make for satisfied customers.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, in my opinion, MS peaked years ago and has, since then, been in a slowly decaying orbit. As the decay increases, I believe MS will institute more and more egregious examples such as this program. Hence, it seems just a matter of time before the avalanche begins, marking the end of MS (to mix metaphors).

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Praise God from whom all blessings flow. I've been promoted to be the administrator of the Planning and Program Evaluation Division (which is where I work). It is, however, a temporary position as the current incumbent has also taken a temporary position (so she has the right to return to her old position at any time). Still, I'm happy and honored to have the opportunity to lead the division that I've been working in for the past eight or nine years.

Aloha!

In what is being self-described as the Ritz Carlton of naturist resorts, comes Florida's Caliente Resort and Spa. The Yahoo News article says now you too can spend $300 USD per night and cavort in the pool with no clothes on. Your money also gets you access to the 120-acre nudist facility, located freeway close to attractions like Disney and Busch Gardens.

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Technology Review is reporting on a story in which carbon nanotube membranes are being used to desalinate water. The commercial use of this technology is still five to ten years away (aren't they always? - ed.) but is being touted as possibly reducing the cost of desalinization by as much of 75 percent (no word on what that cost is).

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The folks over at InfoWorld have a short article on what people hate about some commercial websites. The article lists, among other things, Flash animations, invasive advertising, and difficulty in navigation. The article points to the fact that people can and will switch to sites that meet their needs and don't treat them like sheep to be herded to the slaughter. In other words, all else being equal, those that treat their customers with respect, prosper more than those that don't.

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On a more serious note. No, I'm not going to say much about the US Supreme Court's allowing police to enter people's homes without first knocking and identifying themselves. Yes, this will result in the police breaking down doors while you are sleeping without any notice. Yes, this moves the balance point away from the people's right to be secure in their homes to centralized police powers. Yes, the 5-4 vote shows the effect of adding conservative judges who feel it is a GoodThing to give more power to the police so that everyone can have a little bit more safety (or, at least, feel they are more safe, even as safety is not positively affected by this change).

But the bottom line is, if the people don't want this, they can petition Congress to change the laws. But whatever they do, they shouldn't blame the court, as I am not, because the court is just doing what it  was intended to do by the politicians who nominated and confirmed the justices who handed down this decision.

 Have a Great Weekend, Everyone - Aloha!

Sorry, no post today. I have a meeting first thing in the morning plus I'm moving from the old desk to my new office. It's not exactly very far, but I have more stuff that I thought I had and I don't know where I'm going to put everything.

Aloha!

Yep, no post today either. Sorry, things are just very busy and something has to give. That something is this site. because it doesn't pay the bills. :)

Aloha!

Things have been very busy around here while I transition from my old position to my new one. Hence, postings may be few and far between.

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Insert disclaimer here. YMMV. Use at your own risk.

Now that I've finished working on my media PC, I think I'll start working on getting my home web server project re-started. As you may remember, I'm spending hundreds of dollars per year paying pair.com to host my site.

Although I get reasonably good service for my money, it's still rather expensive to keep this site going. Hence, I've been trying to see how I can host my own site from home.

The biggest problem, other than not having a lot of time to work on it, is not knowing enough on how to set-up not only the web server, but the entire home network in a way that will provide a level of security against hackers.

By that I include the router/firewall, the web server and its operating systems and software, and the internal network.

For the router/firewall, it's possible to open a port and forward traffic to a specific PC inside my network. The problem is, is that the best way to do it? By opening a port, you are announcing to the world, and all the hackers therein, that your PC exists. That is, your network is no longer stealthed and will respond to various scans. Once the script kiddiez know your address, they will come knocking.

If the kidz should get in, your entire network could be compromised because, in this configuration, the web server is behind your firewall.

From what I understand, some routers have another way of giving access to a server (it also appears to be a much less secure way). It is called a DMZ (short for demilitarized zone), that is, the router opens all ports to a PC, but only this PC. While this may solve some problems, as far as I know, it is the same as not having a firewall. Again, the kidz will want to come and play.

A better way of protecting a PC, whether it is port forwarded to or is in a DMZ, is to chain two routers/firewalls. That is, have a router/firewall in front of the web server PC, then another router behind that first router that routes traffic to your internal network. That way, the server is somewhat protected by the first router (assuming here you are port forwarding and not using a DMZ), and the rest of your network is protected by the second (assuming here all ports on the second router/firewall are stealthed and all other applicable security practices are in place). Hence, even if your server PC is hacked, all else being equal, your internal network should be relatively secure.

I am open to suggestions for other configurations so leave me a comment or email me if you can think of a better way of doing it. A tip of the hat to Gibson Research for the suggestion (link to Multi-Nat Router page).

Aloha!

Although life, unlike physics, doesn't always work in repeatable ways, there is a saying that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. So now comes an article from eWeek that talks about a utility to remove the controversial Microsoft Genuine Advantage notification program. Note that it removes only the notification part, not the validation part.

According to the article, the notification part is the one that phones home to MS every time you boot (I have yet to install the Notification program nor this remover, so I don't know from personal experience). It is this part that has many people concerned about just what information is being exchanged with MS and what control this program gives to MS over your PC. YMMV. Use at your own risk. Insert disclaimer here.

Aloha!

Way back in the late 1970's or early '80s, there was this little paddle like device that had flip chart pages. The device, intended for drivers, was used when you wanted to communicate something to another driver. You would flip through the various pages until you found what you wanted to say. Sometimes, what you wanted to say was "Thanks." But other times, well, let's just say you wanted to shove the paddle up the other guy's you know what.

This being the electronic age, there is now something similar. The electronic traffic emoticon (called the Driv-emcion, what a strange name) now provides you with the opportunity to display a happy face, sad face, the words "thanks" and "back off." The wireless battery operated device is remote controlled and can be attached to your car window.

It's Friday!

Although I try to support local businesses, sometimes they just don't have what I need. I began looking for a firewall/router this past weekend to begin reconfiguring my home network for safer computing. But I was unable to find what I was looking for.

What I need is just a router/firewall. I don't need a switch or hub. Well, actually, if someone made a 16-port router/firewall/switch maybe I would get one but, as far as I know, no one does. So all I need is the router/firewall.

Fortunately, Linksys still makes the BEFSR11. This router has one port, which is all I need because if I wanted to, I could put my own 16-port switch behind that. This model been around for awhile and I wish I could have found others that are newer to take a look at but it's all I could find. It should arrive sometime today or Monday.

Once I have that, I'll chain it off my present firewall/router and put my present local network behind it. In between this second router and my present one I will move my test web server. Thus, the web server can be port forwarded from the first router and the rest of the network can be protected behind the second router (which will have all ports stealthed. Yes, I know, I'm talking about two different kinds of ports here, but stay with me).

This still leaves the web server open to attack, but there nothing I can do about that other than to run the most secure operating system I can (FreeBSD) with only port 80 open and no other services other than what is needed running.

By the way, Fellow Daynoter John Doucette notes that the use of the word "DMZ", which I used in my earlier post, does not necessarily mean all ports are open. In fact, in the pricey Nortel gear he gets to play work with, it probably means the opposite. He is no doubt correct, but all I can say is that's how Gibson Research and Linksys described and defined the word DMZ. YMMV. Sorry for any confusion I may have caused.

Have a Great Weekend, Everyone - Aloha!

I'm still waiting for the Linksys router to show up. According to the tracking info, it will probably be delivered today. Unfortunately, the company where I ordered it from seems to have instituted a new requirement of having me present to sign for it when it arrives.

The problem with that is it will be delivered to my house and, being that I work, I won't be home. I would have it delivered to me at work but there is a policy of no personal deliveries so I can't do that.

What this means is I get to drive to the airport tomorrow, where the FedEx warehouse is, during the peak of rush hour, to pick it up. Sigh. I hope this is a one-time thing because I don't plan on going to the airport every time I need to receive something from this company.

Aloha!

No post today. My router did get delivered yesterday and there is story in that. But I have a early meeting to get ready for so I gotta' go.

Aloha!

So, as I thought might happen, FedEx tried to deliver my router to my home on Monday morning a little before 10:00 a.m. But since I was at work, and SWMBO wasn't home either (although she was on vacation), the delivery person left a notice on the front door knob saying I could come pick up the package, after 5:00 p.m., at their office near the airport. Sigh.

But here is where it gets interesting. FedEx came back that afternoon at around 3:00 p.m. and successfully delivered the box to SWMBO, who was home recovering from all the shopping she had done that morning! I've never heard of FedEx attempting to deliver something twice in one day. But there you go.

In any case, I have the router. What I don't have is the time to set things up. I need to shift a bunch of Cat 5E/6 cables around. I may not have the time to do that until late next week.

Speaking of which, if you thought the number of posts had decreased recently, you are right. The thing is, it's not going to get better until I can finish the assignments I had prior to be being promoted. This is made difficult by having new assingments added on top of the existing ones. Sigh.

I am hopeful that things will eventually settle down. The problem is holding on until then...

So, I have things I need to do but little time to do them. For this week, I probably won't be able to do a post on Friday because I have an early meeting in the morning and I need to be prepared for that. Next week Monday through Wednesday I have all kinds of stuff to do so I probably won't post anything either until after that.

As Dr. Pournelle likes to say, (paraphrasing here) it's interesting work if your health doesn't fail.

Aloha!

Certain Republicans have tried to make the case that it was okay for the White House to leak the identity of a CIA operative, during time of war, because it may have been generally known before and, in any case they say, she was no longer undercover. Hence, there was no need to investigate nor prosecute anyone, including the Vice President of the United States who, allegedly authorized the leak.

Hence, it is interesting to see some of these same Republicans reacting to the recent NY Times story about how the US has been monitoring financial transactions as a way to track terrorists.

These Republicans are calling for the prosecution of those at the Times as well as any individuals who may have leaked the information. The problem is, according to this Boston Globe article, the information was already widely disseminated by, now wait for it, the White House and others in the Bush administration. In fact, the administration has been crowing about how it was doing all these great things, including the specific operation reported in the Times, seemingly without care as to who might be listening.

Can you say Rush Limbaugh-level hypocrites? I knew that you could.

Aloha!

I haven't done a wallpaper post for awhile so here ya' go. This is from the, now wait for it, the Lightning Photography site. The copyright holder has specifically allowed the non-commercial personal use of his amazing images so you are free to use them as your wallpaper. He is to be applauded for that since many web 1.0 people don't allow such personal use (even as they are helpless from doing anything effective about it and are actually hurting their business - but I digress).

In any case, it is interesting to see lightning going from cloud to cloud, rather than from cloud to ground. I had read that this occurs, but I don't recall ever having seen any pictures of it. This, and just about any other type of lightning can be found on Mr. Bath's site. A big thank you to him for his work and his reasoned stance on fair use.