Misc. Ramblings

For Windows, I've been using AVG anti-virus software for some time. Although I've never had a problem (that I know of) that AVG didn't stop, I know of several people who have been hit with viruses despite using AVG. To be fair, I don't think they had updated their signature files since AVG was installed on their PCs so maybe that's why they were infected. Or not. I don't know.

But for the Xandros Linux 3.01 Deluxe that I'm now using, the standard seemed to be F-Prot. But, as far as I know, F-Prot is a command line utility scanner. That is, it's not always running to check for on access problems so it can't protect against infections, only identify one once you're already infected. If I'm mistaken on this, please let me know how to configure it to do otherwise.

But I recently found it that AVG is available in RPM and tar.gz formats for i386 Linux systems. I haven't installed it yet and I don't know if this is also a command line utility but, at least, there's another option for Linux. More when I know more.

Posted by DanS at 06:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Insert disclaimer and disclosures here. YMMV. These are my opinions and not necessarily those of my employer. No confidential information is disclosed nor none used to write this post.

It was a dark time for the Rebellion. Imperial Storm Troopers have driven the Rebel forces from their hidden base and pursued them across the galaxy. The Princess knew her time was short, but was determined to leave a legacy that would ultimately triumph. Little did she know that those to follow would themselves depart from her path - and turn towards the darkness...

Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop was the largest landowner and richest woman in the Hawaiian kingdom. Upon her death in 1884, she entrusted her property--known as Bishop Estate--to five trustees in order to create and maintain an institution that would benefit the children of Hawai'i: Kamehameha Schools. A century later, Bishop Estate controlled nearly one out of every nine acres in the state, a concentration of private land ownership rarely seen anywhere in the world. Then in August 1997 the unthinkable happened: Four revered kupuna (native Hawaiian elders) and a professor of trust-law publicly charged Bishop Estate trustees with gross incompetence and massive trust abuse. Entitled " Broken Trust," the statement provided devastating details of rigged appointments, violated trusts, cynical manipulation of the trust's beneficiaries, and the shameful involvement of many of Hawaii's powerful.

This book brings to light information that has never before been made public, including accounts of secret meetings involving Supreme Court justices, and ways the judiciary avoided a public airing of its dirty laundry. "Broken Trust" also throws a spotlight on the legislature, the legal profession, the native Hawaiian community, and the media, showing how each functioned-or failed to function-during the two-year crisis and its aftermath. This book offers readers the opportunity to reexamine fundamental questions about unchecked power and civic responsibility that resonate far beyond the shores of America's 50th State.

The Honolulu Star Bulletin is running a series of extended excerpts from this extraordinary soon to be released book ( available from Amazon or Barnes & Noble). The story it paints reflects what may be some of the worst instances of abuse of power this state, or this nation, has seen. It was as if the Bishop Estate trustees had created a new kingdom. A kingdom where they ruled and no one could, or dared, challenge their absolute rule.

The Bishop Estate seems to mirror all that was/is wrong in Hawaiian politics. Rather than operate openly and transparently, it ruled in secret. Manipulating people and institutions from behind the scenes. At the most, the Estate appeared to put on a show of being open but, if the author's are correct, that's all it was -- a show.

The Chapter 7 passage hits especially close to home. This chapter purports to chronicle the workings of the Hawaii Supreme Court during a time of choosing a new Bishop Estate trustee (which was chosen by the Court). It alleges that the "fix" was in to nominate former Governor John Waihee III (the first US governor of Hawaiian descent) and the man who, perhaps or perhaps not coincidentally, nominated the justices on the Court. According to the book, the Court, to its credit, created a relatively open process whereby a citizen committee would create a list of nominees from which the justices would choose the new trustee. However, the list the committee ultimately submitted did not include the Governor. At that point, the authors say, things began to change. The list was rejected and another candidate put forth. Why the Court changed the process I don't know because not only wasn't I there, but I wasn't even with the Judiciary until several years after these events (not to say that had I been there I would necessarily know now).

But whatever happened, it seems trustee avarice and hubris versus the steadfast courage of the five individuals involved brought needed reforms that to this day are still reverberating through our islands.

Aloha!

Posted by DanS at 06:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Perhaps my web host pair.com realized something was wrong when other people who use MT all had problems posting. Perhaps not. I don't know. All I know is the 505 errors suddenly stopped and all is now well. Go figure.

Posted by DanS at 06:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The idea of using fuel cells to power our vehicles has been the holy grail of inventors for decades. The dream of using a device that is powered by by something as common as hydrogen and oxygen, with water vapor as its only byproduct, has led to millions of dollars in research. However, except in a few instances, hydrogen/oxygen fuel cells have not proven to be practical.

Another approach is the carbon based fuel cell. The University of Hawai'i has developed a fuel cell that uses charcoal and air to create energy. The chief advantage of this system is that charcoal, or carbon, is a renewable resource. Further, you can store and transport charcoal much more easily than hydrogen.

Other cells typically use hydrogen as a fuel. However, useful quantities of hydrogen are impractical or difficult to create, store and distribute. Typically, you get hydrogen by burning fossil fuels to create electricity to split the hydrogen atoms from methane (itself from fossil fuels) or water. Burning fossil fuels to create hydrogen is extremely energy inefficient. That is, you may as well just use the electricity directly then use it to create hydrogen. The solution to this problem is nuclear power. However going nuclear has its own set of problems - practical and political.

In addition, whether compressed or in liquid form, it is difficult, if not impossible, to contain hydrogen without some leakage. This leakage can lead to rapid reactions (i.e., explosions) or other less spectacular, but no less serious, mechanical failures.

On the other hand, charcoal/carbon fuels have their own problems. Chief among these, as noted in the article, is how to feed the solid powdered charcoal into the fuel cell. Also, even though the article kind of down plays it, creating charcoal releases various gases collectively called green house gases. In addition, the byproduct of the carbon fuel cell is carbon dioxide - another so called green house gas. Whether such gases are the cause of what is referred to a global warming is still open to debate.

In any case, research into fuel cells continue. Perhaps someday a practical fuel cell will power your car, but it probably won't happen very soon.

Aloha!

Posted by DanS at 06:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm having problems posting so if you see this, I found a way around the problem. Which of the two problems, detailed below, I'm facing I can't yet say.

It seems that the folks over at MySQL, the database that my web host uses, updated a module around July of last year. If your web host was efficient and updated the module, MovableType (MT), the content management system that I use, immediately refused to run many scripts that operate MT. One of those scripts is the one that publishes these posts. I don't know if my web host, pair.com, just updated this module. If so, this may be the problem.

Throw into this mix, pair.com apparently throttles user scripts. That is, if one site is using a large portion of CPU cycles, pair will automatically and without warning kill the process. I can speculate that pair does this to avoid one site negatively affecting the operations of the others. I should note that pair, as does most other hosts, installs more than one website per server. In my case, there are about 150 sites running on a server using an Athlon XP2200+ with 1GB of RAM and a 120GB disk. For comparison, my wife's 2.8GHz Intel P4 system is faster, has equal memory, and has a larger drive. This script throttling causes some MT operations to fall over because MT can use a lot of memory in rebuilding its pages.

So, I'm kind of stuck here. MT can't post using its main script either because of the MySQL problem or because pair is killing the process that is used to rebuild this site (or something else is wrong).

Until I figure this out, my posts not make it. If that occurs, I will switch away from MT. To what, I don't know yet although I am working on using plain HTML as a last resort.

Stay tuned.

Posted by DanS at 06:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Someone once said; Any press, even bad press, is better than no press at all. The Ladies Professional Golfer's Association (LPGA) is in town for the Field's Open Golf Tournament and seems to disagree with this saying.

In general, many associations try to work with the press because it is in their own best interest. That is, the association gets free publicity. This publicity can turn directly into more money for the association. More money is usually seen as a GoodThing.

It is therefore very curious that the LPGA has barred the Associated Press and both of the local newspapers from stepping foot onto the golf course. It seems the LPGA is now requiring that all members of the press must sign agreements that essentially sign over all rights to any photographs or writings that the press may produce regarding the tournament.

You don't need to be a lawyer to figure out the reaction of many of the press. Namely, many have refused to sign such an agreement since any photos they take or stories they write are copyrighted and owned by their respective organizations, not the LPGA. Hence, to be bound by an agreement that signs away their copyrighted work is, as one person put it, "nuts".

One would think the LPGA will soon revise or completely retract this agreement. But as of this writing, they have not.

I guess the LPGA wants to test the saying about bad press being better than no press. The thing is, they are getting bad press and no press at the same time. Upon reflection, maybe the LPGA will realize that this is not such a good idea.

Have a Great Weekend, Everyone - Aloha!

Posted by DanS at 06:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The MorningPaper has an article on something called Watsu®. The term is a combination of water and shiatsu massage. As you might imagine, the therapy is done in a pool and is said to provide temporary relief to all manner of afflictions.

I have no idea if any of these statements are true nor do I think it is a cure for what ails you, but I could think of worse ways of getting a massage. Maybe the next time I'm on the Big Island or Kaua'i I'll look into one of these. YMMV. Insert disclaimer here.

Aloha!

Posted by DanS at 06:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm trying out a different theme to the site so things won't look the same. In fact, what you see may change from day-to-day as I experiment with the style sheet. I like to shake things up every once in awhile as a way of teaching myself how to use the system, templates, style sheets, and such.

So, hang in there and enjoy the ride (as it were). Posted by DanS at 04:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Here in Hawai'i, our weather is usually pretty nice. The temperatures rarely go the extremes. We hardly ever see a tornado. And it's been over ten years since the last hurricane (crosses fingers).

But every once in awhile, nature reminds us just how insignificant humans are. Over the last few days, we've been hit by heavy rains, including thunder and lightning. On Kaua'i, over a 24-hour period, 18 inches (about 46cm) of rain fell. Flooding in the usual areas has occurred and traffic gets really bad as people slow down due to limited visibility.

That said, Hawai'i wouldn't be as green as it is without the rain; so I'm not complaining. Especially now that the sun is coming up in a glorious display of orange, blue, and purple colors painted across the sky.

Aloha!

Posted by DanS at 06:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Some random notes on my new 1GB iPod nano. These may change over time as I get more familiar with the nano. What ever happens, don't get all bent out of shape if you don't like my comments. If you don't want to hear them, skip what I have to say. It's a big world out there, so why waste your time here. YMMV. Insert disclaimer here.

• The box includes just the nano, a USB cable, headphones, and a small vinyl case (not counting a short getting started page and CD with software and longer "Features Guide" user manual). Missing is an AC adapter, dock, or real case. All three of these are expensive accessories. Buying just these three will set you back around $100 USD. No wonder Apple is profiting more from the iPod series than their PCs.

• The nano is very thin. So thin that you wonder how strong it is and whether it can survive in the pocket of your favorite pair of jeans. I do not recommend you find out. Still, part of the coolness factor of the nano is how thin it is.

• The 1GB model I got holds about 150 to 200 songs (depending on the length of each song). For me, this is more than enough as it would take about 10 hours to listen to all these songs. When I get tired of these songs, I can delete some and add others. While this is not as convenient as having every single song that I own always available, it's good enough for me.

• The instructions are kind of vague on using the Click Wheel. The instructions say to "Move your thumb lightly around the click Wheel to select a menu item." What this means is you move your finger in a circular motion around the circumference of the wheel. This is not intuitive. When most people see a click wheel you think of the four compass points and that's all. No where in my experience have I seen something where I glide my finger in a circular motion along the circumference of the wheel to move the cursor.

  In any case, going in a clockwise direction causes the cursor to move down. Reversing direction (counter-clockwise, or anti-clockwise to some people across the pond) causes the cursor to move upwards. Likewise, when you are playing a song and you want to change the volume, which you will unless all your songs have had their volumes normalized, just glide your finger in a counter-clockwise direction to lower the volume.

• To turn off the nano, press and hold the play/pause button for a few seconds.

• I wish the nano would overlap songs so that as one was ending it would fade out and automatically fade into the next song. As it is, there are sometimes long pauses between songs. It may be just me, but I find that annoying.

• To remove the USB cable from the nano, press the two buttons; one on each side of the cable connector. Do not just yank on the cable as this may cause serious damage to the nano, your hand, or whatever the cable is connected to.

• Since Apple doesn't include an AC adapter, you have to use the USB cable to charge the battery. This, of course, involves attaching the other end to a USB 2.x compliant PC. This is not very convenient unless you are using it at work and therefore your PC is on, which it has to be to provide the current for a charge, for extended periods and you don't mind leaving the nano attached for the three hours it takes to fully charge the battery. Then there's the problem of not being able to change the battery yourself. I don't know when I'll have to do that nor how much it will cost, but I wonder if it won't be cheaper to buy a new iPod when that happens (which may be the whole point of the exercise).

• I bought the leather case and overlay protector from Martin Fields. The case is thicker than I thought it would be. However, its very thickness probably does a good job of protecting the nano from scratches. Although, I don't think it would help that much if you dropped the nano on to a concrete floor. The thickness of the case also, to a small extent, makes it more difficult to use the Click Wheel. It's not that hard to reach the wheel but I was kind of surprised that Martin Fields didn't provide a wider cutout to reach the wheel.

  The case also interferes with using the Dock. If you slide the case up five or ten millimeters you can insert the nano into the Dock. Otherwise, the case is too wide/thick to fit. However, the case is so tight that sliding the case is easier said than done.

• The overly plus protector works as advertised and I have no problems with it (other than I had heck of a time peeling the backing paper away from the protector). If you have smaller fingers than I (or sharper finger nails) you may not have as much of a problem as I did.

• The headphones are the in-the-ear bud type that looks like the kind that you can buy at the drug store for $5.00. Hence, you can't expect much from them. They produce sound and that's about all I can say. On the downside, the two buds get tangled up very easily because the wires are of such a narrow gauge. I also fear that the wire will, eventually, pull out of the connector that goes into the nano. The ear buds are, to me, also uncomfortable to use for long periods. I can use them when I go walking for exercise but if I'm at work, I switch to regular headphones rather than ear buds.

As you can probably tell, I'm impressed with the nano's thin size and its ability to hold enough songs to keep me happy. I am not so happy with accessories that should come with the nano but aren't included and the non-intuitive Click Wheel operation. Still, I don't regret getting the nano and hope it lasts a long time (or until cell phones can store at least as many songs so I can use it instead).

Aloha!

Posted by DanS at 06:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Sometimes, taking an extreme position is done just to get a conversation going. By taking such a position, clarity of thought can emerge due to the examination of ideas that would otherwise never be heard. That is not to say the extreme position will ultimately turn out to be the path chosen, nor am I saying it should. But the process of discussing the position can lead to interesting destinations.

For example, PC Magazine's resident columnist John C. Dvorak has a post that predicts Apple will switch to Microsoft's Windows operating system. Although he doesn't present any direct evidence of this, and personally, I don't see this happening anytime before Hell goes sub-zero, he does stir things up by making such a statement.

That said, I'm not sure I would want Apple switching to Windows.

Nature loves diversity. Genetic diversification is one of the reasons we exist while other species have faltered. Likewise, having diverse operating systems provides for a robust environment in which one virus/Trojan Horse cannot bring down all computers.

Indeed, in my opinion, if we were to have only One True Operating System, I would rather it be the Mac OS than Windows because the Mac is more secure. Yes, this is because Mac OS X is based on Unix, but so what. In computers, security is good while, at the same time, offering thousands of applications to choose from (now is the not the time to discuss just how good, or bad, these applications are).

Secondly, the Mac OS is cheaper. Mac OS X (presently at version 10.4.3), is going for $129.00. No need to get a special student or OEM discount. No need to buy it with a system or to get it from the car trunk of a friend of a friend. Just buy it directly from Apple, if you want.

Speaking of cost, from an economic perspective, competition is good. Where there is competition, the price of anything is set at the lowest people are willing to pay for and the highest sellers are able to get. At the same time. This is a win-win situation. Therefore trades will occur. It is when there is no competition that the market fails.

So, although I think Dvorak is just putting this idea out to get some attention (which is succeeding), I hope Apple is not actually headed in this direction. YMMV. Even I have been known to be wrong. Insert disclaimer here.

Have a Great Weekend, Everyone - Aloha!

Posted by DanS at 06:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Well, not exactly. But maybe. The RIAA is trying to remake the law, and some would say history, by promulgating a rule that would make ripping your own CDs to iPods illegal. That's right, under this rule, you would be breaking the law if you to take your own CDs and rip them to, for example, an iPod. Or to your PC. Or, for that matter, anything. In fact, you wouldn't be legally able to make any backup copies of anything. I wonder if you memorized the words or music of a song if the RIAA would say that was also illegal?

Aloha!

Posted by DanS at 06:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

What goes from zero to 60 miles per hour (mph) in three seconds, has a top speed of 180 mph, and never needs to stop at a gas station? Meet the Mullen GT electric car . Now, don't ask any questions about whether it makes economic or even environmental sense to pay almost $125,000 for this car. If you do, you're probably not going to buy this because it doesn't make much sense from those points of view.

But then, tell me what sense does it make to spend money to buy a Ferrari or any of the other super cars? People don't buy this class of car for those reasons.

Don't get me wrong, if I had the money I would snap up the latest Ferrari in less than three seconds. But I don't have that kind of money. So I have to weigh the cost versus the benefits.

Truth be told, even if I did have the money, a super car certainly wouldn't be my every day car because it's not very practical. I mean, I'm too old for a two-door sports car and I'm way past the point that I enjoy crawling under a car to work on it. Then there's the mileage, gas or otherwise. And finally, the opportunity cost is so high that you can buy several less costly vehicles for the price of one of these.

That all said, if anyone wants to give me a Ferrari; my email address is to the right.

Aloha!

Posted by DanS at 06:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Sometimes, being popular is not a good thing. For example, I went to the local Apple store this past weekend to get the new 1GB Nano. I knew I was in trouble when the doorway of the store was nearly impassable due to the number of people trying to get in and out.

After squeezing my way in, I saw two lines of people, each about 20 deep, at the cashiers. I don't know for sure what everyone was buying, but I could guess. So, I reluctantly went home and ordered everything online. By everything, I mean a black 1GB Nano, an additional dock, and an additional cable for the dock (no, the dock doesn't apparently come with it).

Since I've heard of problems with the nano getting scratched, I decided to go to the Martin Fields site and order the overlay screen protector . The thin membrane is designed to protect the nano's fragile display (Long time readers may remember that I got something similar for my Motorola Razr. The protector for the phone works so well that I thought I'd get one for the nano). In addition, I ordered their leather case to protect the rest of the nano. I don't know if this this the best case but it looked good enough.

Although the nano should arrive on Friday and the Martin Fields stuff probably early next week, I still wish I could have just purchased everything at the Apple store. More when everything arrives.

Aloha!

Posted by DanS at 06:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Sorry, no post today. There is a hearing tomorrow on a legislative bill that I am tracking. So, I will be a busy person while I work on that.

Aloha

Posted by DanS at 06:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There's was a comment yesterday left by someone by the name of Paul. I responded to the comment via email but it bounced back. I will quote the email (and the error message for Paul's sake below). I will also respond to another comment on Lotus Notes. The original comments are in italics and my responses are in bold.

Date: Thu, 9 Feb 2006
Subject: Re: [Misc. Ramblings] New Comment Posted to 'Taking Note'
From: Dan Seto
To: paul at rphconsulting dot com

Dan, I'm with you on pocket calendars vs PDAs. I did think of a good use for a PDA however, if I could ever get all of my music and book titles on one and then carry and use it I could save a lot of duplicate purchases.

This is true. But in any case, PDAs seem to be going down the tubes and maybe smart phones will take their place (when prices drop!)?

Re Lotus anything, they ticked me off clear back in 5.25 floppy days - probably with copy protection - and I haven't given them a thought since that luxury being one of the handful of real advantages of being a sole proprietor.

I hear you on that (although, back in the day, I did like Lotus 1-2-3 better than Excel). Perhaps someday we will wake up and switch to something else...

---

<paul at phconsulting dot com>: host mail dot rphconsulting dot com[66.211.137.31] said: 511 sorry, no mailbox here by that name (#5.1.1 - chkuser) (in reply to RCPT TO command)

---

Date: 10 Feb 2006
Subject: [Misc. Ramblings] New Comment Posted to 'Taking Note'
To: Dan Seto
From: myfirstname at jaffacake dot net

Dan,

Only one word springs to mind...clueless.

Mr. Rose: I am glad Lotus Notes/Domino works for you. Unfortunately, if the article I linked to is correct, it doesn't work for the great majority of people.

As to what I know, or don't know (i.e., "clueless"), I would appreciate your giving me the benefit of the doubt. I know how our system works better than you could possibly ever know because you aren't here.

You really have no idea of how Lotus Notes (note the 'S'), it's Domino Server and it's licensing works.

A few points to highlight my view:

1 - Email was never designed to carry emails, it was an after thought. We have this thing called FTP (File Transfer Protocol) on the internet that was designed for that. It's what people usually use when they download files.

"Email was never designed to carry email..." I'm sorry, but this doesn't make any sense. Email was never designed to carry email? If so, what was email designed to carry?

2 - Domino server reliability is one of THE best in the industry. My servers never fall over, period. If you do have stability issues, your admin team should seriously take advice from an expert; they clearly are out of their depth. It is easy to administer but you still need to know what you're doing! I recently took a server off-line for routine maintenance and it's uptime was 24/7 since my last scheduled maintenance...over 6months prior.

Perhaps your system is well run, I can't comment on what others get. All I can say is our server is down at least once a week. In fact, there is scheduled "maintenance" this afternoon that will take the system down for several hours. Whether it is scheduled or not, our server is not available 24/7. It is great that you can perform maintenance on your server without taking it down and therefore provide 24/7 service.

3 - Not enabling (or in fact disabling, it's on by default) - webmail functionality is unusual but it can put constraints on system resources as people switch to the 'thin-client' model.

I can't say what the impact is on the server but switching to webmail, via a browser, sure makes my PC run better because my browser doesn't use as much RAM nor CPU time as the Notes client does.

4 - Notes/Domino has a per-user license model. Switching to a web browser client does not remove the need for a client access license.

In reviewing the licenses at the IBM/Lotus site it is unclear as to what your point is. My browser doesn't cost anything. The Lotus Notes client does. What part of that is not clear?

5 - The Notes client will already run in Linux under WINE and a supported Linux native (no WINE) version is on the way very soon. I doubt this will encourage your company to switch desktop OS. The Domino server has run and been supported on Linux for quite some time.

I will assume here that you are not a regular reader of mine. I think this because you apparently don't know that I've been using Lotus Notes, via CrossOver Office, since I made the switch to Xandros Deluxe 3.01 Linux last year. I will also assume you do not run Notes in Linux because you would know just how badly this works if you did.

As to switching OS, I think you are confused. I don't know nor care what OS Domino runs on. I was referring to the desktop where I use Xandros Deluxe 3.01. If we could use our browsers to access Domino, this would remove one of the two large roadblocks to changing OS: email and Netware access (if you search my site, you will find instructions on accessing Netware 4.x servers while running Linux as a desktop OS).

Finally, in response to your last comment - "Just give something lightweight, fast, easy to use, reliable, and accessible over the Internet via a standard browser and I'll be happy."

We have that in our company, we call it Lotus Notes.

On a lot of other servers, they too have something like that, they call it Postfix, running on FreeBSD 6.x.

Have a Great Weekend, Everyone - Aloha!

Posted by DanS at 06:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There is a series of amazing scenic images of China brought to you courtesy of Feng Jiang. I had a hard time picking just one to show you but I think this one is representative of the stunning photos Feng takes. Enjoy.

Posted by DanS at 06:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Guardian has a post on Lotus Notes, the groupware application that seemingly will not die. Though millions of people use this prime example of pastware, the only advocates seem to be die hard IBM mainframe administrators who never choose anything but TrueBlue.

While Notes can supposedly do all kinds of things over and above email, I've never used these features. I don't even use the calendaring because it's easier just to carry a pocket calendar than to jot down notes to myself on paper and then type them in once I get back to the office. All I need is my pocket calendar and pen and I'm good to go. No computer, no PDA, no nothing.

Even as an email client, it has so many options, most of which I will never use, that it looses sight of what a good email client is supposed to be. Namely, a quick and easy way to send text and attachments to someone else. Period. Not this lumbering, multi-megabyte RAM eating, creaking old do everything not very well program.

Even on the server side, Domino commits the cardinal sin of email servers - being unreliable. Yes, I know, Domino is supposed to be very easy to administer. But. As a user, I don't care about that. What I care about is reliable email service. But reliability is not something that goes with Notes.

Moreover, our IT folks have not enabled the webmail functionality of Notes. This means we shall use the Note client, even though the Domino server can be accessed via any standard web browser. Not only does this cost thousands of dollars in Notes licensing fees but it's also one more barrier to switching to Linux (since there isn't a Notes client for Linux, yet).

All in all, like millions of other users, I'm not a big fan of Lotus Notes or the Domino server. Just give something lightweight, fast, easy to use, reliable, and accessible over the Internet via a standard browser and I'll be happy.

Aloha!

Posted by DanS at 06:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Okay, so the Antec Fusion case isn't a replacement for their Aria case. At least, it doesn't look like a direct replacement (see yesterday's updated post for a picture).

Unless Antec decides to update the Aria, which has a PSU rated at only 300 Watts, I will have to look for a "mini-tower" [Isn't mini-tower like saying "jumbo shrimp"? But I digress - ed.) case instead. I can get a mini-tower for about $30USD and add my own PSU (probably an Antec Neo 430) for less than the cost of the Aria. The downside would be that a mini-tower is larger than the Aria. Sigh.

Although I have some time before I need to decide on which case to get, I will need to do so, soon.

Posted by DanS at 06:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In other news, Apple announced the availability of a 1GB nano iPod . The new iPod is listed as being able to hold about 240 songs while costing only $149USD ($50 less than the $199 nano 2GB model).

But, there are downsides to getting an iPod. Two-hundred and forty songs are less than what I have in my collection but, realistically, I don't need to have access to every song all the time and can always swap things in and out. That said, it's not convenient to do so.

Secondly, there isn't an iTunes client for Linux and iPods only work with iTunes. So, I would have to use my laptop, which still runs Windows XP, to run iTunes. Again, this is not very convenient.

Lastly, there's the problems with a non user-replaceable battery and all the scratches to the case and screen that people have been reporting.

Still, it is very cool. This weekend, if the local Apple store has one in black, I think I'll get one. Or not. We'll see.

Aloha!

Posted by DanS at 06:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Antec announced last week what sounded like a replacement for their popular Aria case. The press release states the new "Fusion" case will be available on March 1st at a price dependent "upon final feature set." I don't know if that means you can add optional features or whether the press release was written before the design was finalized.

In either case [pun intended - ed.], there isn't much else known except for what's in the press release:

• 430 watt power supply (PSU).

• Dual 120mm cooling fans.

• Vacuum Fluorescent Display (VFD).

The VFD will probably get most of the attention but what's important to me is the power supply. What with the higher energy consumption/heat output of modern CPUs and the need for multiple hard drives and at least two TV tuners (for regular and high definition), a high power PSU is required. So I am very glad I had not yet purchased a case for the media PC I am putting together.

But all may not be better in the new case. It is unclear whether the addition of the VFD means Antec sacrificed the Aria's 8-in-one card reader. If so, you'll have decide how important that was. For me, I don't think it much matters since I would be using mine to view/record video, not still images. That said, if you need to transfer still images to the drive you could always use an USB-based reader.

All-in-all, unless th Fusion is more expensive than the Aria (about $129USD), I'll probably buy the Fusion.

Lunch time update: I've been able to find a picture of the case and I'm very disappointed that it appears to be a variation of the Overture II case rather than the Aria. That is, rather than being a small form factor type case, it appears to be the similar in size to many horizontal desktop cases (i.e., larger than what I want). Sigh. I guess I'm back to looking for a small form factor case that takes standard micro-ATX motherboards and has a PSU rated at higher than 300 watts. I hope Antec will update their Aria but I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

Posted by DanS at 06:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Speaking of PC parts, I recently replaced the Zalman 7000B AlCu in SWMBO's PC with Zalman's big brother CPU fan called the CNPS9500. And by big brother I mean this cooler is BIG. First, there's the weight of 530g (about 1.2lbs). Then there's the height of 125mm (almost five inches). Note well that the weight exceeds the maximum of 450g allowed on most motherboards. Hence, you must be extremely careful when moving the motherboard with this fan attached. You may even wish to remove the cooler if you have to transport the board for long distances over rough roads.

That said, this cooler has significantly dropped the high operating temperatures the Intel 2.8GHz (Prescott) CPU was previously registering (around 70 degrees Celsius, at idle). Even though the smaller Zalman did better than the stock Intel CPU fan, temps would still climb such that throttling was probably occurring. But now, with the 9500, idle temps average around 58 degrees Celsius with the fan slowly spinning at just under 1,800 RPM. This is much better and I've been able to remove one of the two auxiliary case fans I had to add to keep the Prescott from melting down. I may even try removing the remaining auxiliary case fan as it is now the loudest component in the case and probably isn't needed anymore.

Three installation notes may be of help for those of you who decide to install this fan. As always, proceed at your own risk. YMMV. Insert disclaimer here.

First, When removing your existing fan, try to read whatever instructions or warnings you can find relating to its removal. Whatever you do, don't just yank the old fan off because the adhesion between the fan and the CPU is usually so great that you can literally pull the CPU right out of the motherboard. Needless to say, if you do this, you could damage both the CPU and motherboard.

What you usually have to do is very, very carefully, remove the hold down mechanism (screws or clips) that hold the fan to the motherboard. Then, very carefully rotate the fan back and forth until the fan releases from the CPU and you can safely remove the fan.

Second, be aware that the side of the 9500 with the fan, faces inward (the instructions do not mention this). That is, the fan blows through the cooler and then out the back. Hence, you place the side with the fan facing towards the inside of the case and the opposite side facing out the back (assuming your case has an exhaust fan in the back. Otherwise, you may need to point the exhaust side of the cooler at your power supply (assuming you have a power supply with an exhaust fan).

The third installation tip is that you will probably need to remove the motherboard from your case as there otherwise won't be room to reach the screws used to mount the new fan. In my case, the PSU blocked access to one side of the fan so I couldn't reach in with the supplied hex wrench to tighten down the fan. So, I ended up removing the motherboard whereupon I was able to mount the fan in a few minutes. By the way, before removing the cables that attach to the motherboard, you should make a clear diagram and/or mark which cable goes where. You should especially note the orientation of connectors and which pin each connector goes to.

If your case and motherboard layout has the room for this behemoth (have I mentioned it's BIG?), and you aren't using your case to transport things for your LAN parties, then this may be the cooler for you. YMMV. Insert disclaimer here.

Aloha!

Posted by DanS at 06:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

In order for Linux to finally break through and become an alternative to Windows, it needs to meet the needs of the average desktop user. That is, you have to include a GUI that is easy to use and applications designed to run under that GUI.

Within that user space, Linux needs the types of applications that many people have become used to and dependent on. The basics include Web access, word processing, multimedia (video/audio), and infrastructure tools such as drivers for printers, scanners, keyboards, mice, etc.

In order to find out which applications people are currently interested in seeing run on Linux, the folks over at Novell are hosting a survey . The list currently shows the following:

Top 10 Applications (last 31 days)
Rank	Application
1.	Photoshop
2.	Autocad
3.	Dreamweaver
4.	iTunes
5.	Macromedia Studio
6.	Flash
7.	Quicken
8.	Visio
9.	Quickbooks
10.	Lotus Notes

Of the 10, I could use Photoshop, iTunes, and Lotus Notes. Personally, I could really use something like Paint Shop Pro rather something more complicated like Photoshop. But either would do. Yes, there is Gimp. But no, it is not as easy to use nor, in the case of Photoshop, as powerful.

For iTunes users, there are efforts to get something working, but it seems like that every time they get close, Apple releases a new version that breaks all the work done to that point. One might get the feeling that Apple was doing this on purpose.

For Lotus Notes, yes, you can sort of run it using CrossOver Office. But it's not very stable and not all the features work. Although it is better than nothing, I can't wait for Lotus to release a real Linux client (Real Soon Now).

A Linux desktop that meets the current needs of Windows users is not there yet and this survey shows some of the gaps that still exist. Maybe some day, but not yet.

Oh, before someone asks, yes, I'm using a distribution called Xandros Deluxe 3.01 on a full-time basis. Although this may be close to as good as it gets, in my opinion, as good as it gets isn't (yet) good enough.

Aloha!

Posted by DanS at 06:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There are many successful people who were born and raised in Hawaii. But to many, you really aren't SUCCESSFUL unless you go to the mainland and make it big there. I guess it's something like the big fish in the small pond going to the ocean where, it turns out, he or she is still a big fish.

One of the guys that made it big on the mainland is Guy Kawasaki. Kawasaki is an author of eight books/Forbes magazine columnist/Apple Fellow/venture capitalist (read his bio) and is now also a blogger.

Kawasaki starting blogging in December and has written informative and insightful posts on business. From email etiquette to the art of the schmooze to how to give a good speech/presentation. Anyone who is in business, or wants to be, should read his blog.

In each post, he is giving away valuable information that you can use to move forward in the business world. Why he started his blog and why he is giving away such valuable insights I don't know. But I understand that his blog has led to increased book sales so maybe there's something to all this stuff about business being a conversation. Or not.

In any case, if you have an interest in business, please go to his blog site.

On a personal note: Hey Guy, I'll call your Kalihi Valley and raise you one Palolo Valley!

Have a Great Weekend, Everyone - Aloha!

Posted by DanS at 06:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Pineapple was once called the king of crops in Hawai'i. By that they meant pineapple fields covered the face of the land with only the bent over shapes of immigrants working the fields to interrupt the orderly rows. Those fields provided work for many a laborer from China, Japan, and the Philippines.

But as the times changed, and the land itself became more valuable than the pineapples grown on it and foreign competition drove pineapple prices down, it became more and more difficult to justify planting pineapples.

So, although it was a sad day, it should not have come as a surprise that Del Monte announced yesterday that after 100 years here, it was shutting down pineapple growing operations in Hawai'i .

Over 700 workers will have to find other employment as Del Monte phases out its operations. However, there is interest in the land from another company that may use it for other agricultural purposes (no, not Kona Gold). Agriculture in the islands has had to diversify to survive. Right now, coffee, cocoa, grapes for wine, macadamia nuts, and a host of other crops are being grown in our rich soils.

That said, it is doubtful that any one crop will once again reign as king, but perhaps it is for the better.

Aloha!

Posted by DanS at 06:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sometimes, I really hate computers (and the software that run on them). Both our mail server and voice mail server are acting up. Mail sent on Sunday did not show up until 7:45am Monday morning. Then access to voice mail, both my own and others, is random, at best. Sometimes there is a very loud, annoying beeping sound. Sometimes there is silence. And sometimes it works. We really do rely on both these systems and having both go down, at what seems like random intervals, is very frustrating.

Now magnify that by a thousand times because we are drafting testimony that is time sensitive and you have the makings of a system meltdown. Or at least a human ware meltdown. Sigh.

I don't know what operating system(s) or software these two systems use but it needs to be fixed. I contacted our Information Technology Division but they apprently don't know why it's happening nor did they suggest a solution.

The bottom line, I guess, for both problems is we are just supposed to live with it.

Posted by DanS at 06:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Speaking of testimony, I've been hit twice with the task of drafting testimony with less than 24 hours to do so. Which, as you may have noticed, has left me no time to do anything with this site. Sorry about that.

When this type of situation occurs, bad things happen. First, all other work has to go on hold while I put out these fires. Many times, the work put on hold is itself pretty important. Secondly, 24 hours doesn't give me a lot of time to analyze the proposed bill. Some of these bills are very long and make a lot of changes. Hence, I am not able to, many times, offer much in the way of insightful thoughts. In fact, mostly, I try to find the one main thing the measure is trying to do and project what the impact to the affected parties would be (I think I've mentioned it before but when I first went to a seminar on bill writing, put on by the Legislature, the presenter said; in any legislation, someone is helped and someone is hurt. Hence, to analyze a bill, one must determine what is the bill intended to do, who is affected, what is the impact, and what new problems the measure would create (all solutions create new problems). Wise advice to anyone reviewing bills.).

Aloha!

Posted by DanS at 06:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)