Monday - 5 June 2000
Another Boring Day in Paradise. Ho Hum. Another weekend in paradise. On Saturday, I went down to CompUSA to get 100-ft. (30.5 m) of CAT-5 cable, two female connectors, and two wall plates. And that's about it. I was too lazy to anything with it for now. Maybe next weekend.
Sunday wasn't much more productive. I usually vacuum (hoover) the carpets but the bag that collects all of the dirt/dust was full and we didn't have a replacement. Oh well, maybe next weekend. At least I was able to lay-out for about an hour on our deck and got some sun.
Speaking of Sun. 'Baywatch Hawaii' will be back next season with three new characters, redesigned swimsuits (more cleavage and different colors), and new writers. While I am thankful that they are willing to film here (and provide well paying union jobs), I do hope that the level of writing does go up. If not, I'm not sure how much longer they will be on the air (jiggling body parts notwithstanding).
Speaking of Films. Cisco Systems ("the worldwide leader in networking") tomorrow will "make motion picture history when Cisco becomes the first company ever to digitally transmit a film over a coast-to-coast IP (Internet Protocol) network. Fox's animated action adventure epic, TITAN A.E. will be transported across the nation and digitally premiered at the Supercomm trade show in Atlanta." See the press release here.
Speaking of Leader. Rick Pitino, former coach of the NCAA basketball champion Kentucky, and coach of the the Boston Celtics, has a new book called "Lead to Succeed", Broadway Books, May 16, 2000, ISBN: 0767903412. He breaks down leadership into a 10-point game plan:
1. Have a clear, concrete vision, of your future. 2. Be your own messenger. Directly communicate with subordinates. 3. Build a team ego. 4. Act with integrity. Don't cut corners or bend rules. 5. Act decisively. Make the decisions and move on. 6. Be adaptable. Be able to change course when needed. 7. Be consistent. 8. Maintain focus. Be disciplined. 9. Live for the future. Short-term goals for the present, long-term ones for the future. 10. Act selflessly. "Leaders are judged by the successes of the people they lead."
Speaking of Basketball (and sorry. But Dr. Jim, you know what's coming so you can skip the following if you want). Lakers Win! Lakers Win! OK. Without the home court advantage, the National Basketball Association Los Angles Lakers would probably have lost to the Portland Trailblazers in the last, and deciding, game of the series. But then, L.A. got the advantage by having the best record through the regular season. So they deserved the advantage and made good use of it. Next up, the Indiana Pacers.
Aloha!
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Tuesday - 6 June 2000
Monday Madness. No, this isn't the second Monday of the week. It's just that yesterday was devoured by big, flying roaches. Two hours into the workday I got a call from my wife saying she needed to go to the doctor due to some sharp, long lasting pain in her sides and back.
Not wanting to take any chances, we immediately called to make an appointment. Unfortunately, her regular doctor was on vacation so we had to make an appointment with another. The appointment was for 9:45 a.m. and we got there at 9:40. And waited. And waited. 45 minutes after the appointment that was made over the phone before we left, she was seen. One wonders why you have to make an appointment when it will be 45 minutes before anyone takes the time to take a look at you. We fully realize that this was a last minute thing. But again, why give an appointment which you will not be keeping anyway? It just gives a misleading appearance.
Unfortunately, this is not the first time. In fact, the last time, they placed her paperwork under a case file and completely forgot she was there. After an hour of waiting, she finally asked the nurse what was taking so long. At that point they realized that she was there and they had to stop booking their next vacation trip (the part about booking the trip is a sarcastic joke) and see her. Sigh. The joys of some doctor's offices.
Anyway, as far as they know, she is OK. They don't have an answer as to why she has these pains but they apparently don't think it is important to find out. Is it no wonder that a higher percentage of women die from heart attacks then men. Mostly because the warning signs are ignored by doctors when it occurs in women. But in men, immediate action is taken. In either case, we have a Saturday appointment with her regular Doc so we will see what happens then. Very Big Sigh.
[I've revised some of the comments above to add a little clarity (I hope) to what went on. I apologize if the above reads as a rant. But folks, I get a little angry when people don't appear to take the health of my wife as seriously as I do.]
Windows 2000 Bans the BSOD! Well, OK. It does that by defaulting to an immediate reboot rather than giving you the dreaded Blue Screen of Death and then hanging there until you do something. For some, this is a Good Thing since if this is a server, and it's 0 Dark 30 with no one around, you might want it to reboot and get going again. On the other hand, if you're sitting in front of your screen and Win2000 appears to do a spontaneous reboot, now you know why.
Oh, you don't think this is a Good Thing? Well then "Click Start, Settings, Control Panel, then open the System applet. Select the Advanced tab, then click the Startup and Recovery button. Turn off "Automatically reboot" and click OK." Thanks to InfoWorld's Brian Livingston for this tip and others (see the column here).
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Hump Day Wednesday - 7 June 2000
King Kamehameha Day. This coming Monday is King Kamehameha Day. A state holiday. People come from all over the state and the world to see the parade to commemorate the man who united the islands under one King (by killing most of his opponents). There is a picture of his lei bedecked statue here. Oh. The building behind the statue. That's where I work.
Only In Hawai'i. Not. The morning paper reports that the state Windward Community College is offering an Introduction to Surf Science and Technology course. It was put together after it was learned that the UK's Plymouth University offered a Bachelor of Science degree (see it here) in surfing. Yikes! Surfing? In the UK? What's next? Introduction to poi making and lei stringing? <g> Maybe the Community College should have a course in advanced soccer. They could bring in Sunderland's Kevin Phillips to teach. Nah. Never happen.
Hello? ILOVEYOU. The first cell phone virus that I've ever heard of is in the wild in Spain. It appears to hit any cell phone that has text capabilities. The virus is called "Timofonica." Spanish for "prank, con, or swindle." See the story from ZDNET here.
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Thursday - 8 June 2000
This will be a short post because I need to do some research on the topic of "therapeutic mediation" for work. Also, the research I did while writing the item below took almost all of the time I have to write the post in the first place. Sigh.
Disabled Laws. It was inevitable. The backlash against the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), that is. The ADA law has been used as a club to force states and businesses to spend billions of dollars on changes to facilities to adapt to the unique needs of those so afflicted.
While I feel for those who are disabled, I do not support spending more money than whatever benefits that might accrue from these laws. So, now comes the state of Alabama before the US Supreme Court arguing that the ADA violates the 11th Amendment to the US Constitution. Namely, the states have immunity from being sued in federal courts (see the 11th Amendment here).
Alabama is arguing that the ADA should have come under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution (see it here), which deals with equal protection and due process. I have no idea whether this argument has any merit, and if so, what effect it would have on the ADA. But the state of Hawai'i feels the argument has merit and will be filing a friend-of-the-court brief to support Alabama.
As you would expect, the ACLU and lawyers who make a good living filing ADA suits, are up in arms about this and want the Governor to retract the brief. As I've said, I'm not clear on the merits of the case, but for more background information, you can read this article here.
***** Noon Update *****
Two quick updates:
1. Outlook ILOVEYOU update is available here.
2. Opera 4 Beta 5 is available here.
Aloha!
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Aloha Friday - 9 June 2000
It's FRIDAY!
Speaking of Viruses. So there's a new zombie program in the wild that attaches itself to an .avi file that has been compressed into an .exe. A company called NETSEC (see the advisory from them here. Note that the link will probably change at some point). The particulars are below:
This trojan is transported within a legitimate executable attachment or downloadable file that contains a compressed, malicious executable (".exe"). The compression is designed to prevent detection of the malicious code by virus scanning software. When the user attempts to execute the legitimate file, the malicious executable decompresses and installs itself on the hard drive, typically in the top level of the Windows directory (c:\windows\). Upon reboot, the malicious code loads itself into the system, renames itself by assigning a randomly generated name, modifies the system.ini, win.ini and the Windows Registry, and installs a service that makes an outbound connection to one of two modified Internet Relay Chat (IRC) servers. The Trojan establishes the outbound connection over random ports on the infected machine while attempting to connect to well known ports on the IRC Servers (6669, 2221, 2222, 7000). Once established, the Trojan passes the compromised computer's IP Address, and then opens a random listening port on the compromised machine by which an adversary can connect back into the machine.Upon examination of the IRC servers, they appear to maintain a list of all infected machines that are currently connected to the Internet. Since each Trojan .exe file requires specific information to be embedded into its code to connect back to its IRC server, there are as many variations of the .exe file as there are IRC servers (two discovered and validated at this time)
The malicious code contains the "Sub-Seven Trojan" along with other programs, (e.g. scanner, ftp and IRC). These files may allow an adversary to gain complete control of the compromised machine. Once running on the infected machine, the executable is not displayed in the process table / task manager and cannot be killed or deleted by normal operations.
NETSEC advises the use of either a scanner program from www.fsecure.com or ZoneAlarm 2.1 from www.zonealarm.com (which will detect the initial attempt to make the IRC connection).
Speaking of Video Files. So, you've always wanted a copy of Apple's "1984" commercial. You know. The one shown during the Super Bowl that has the comely lass running down the aisle twirling a sledge hammer above her head. While the sullen masses stare at the image of Big Brother. Then, in her one final act of defiance, hurls the hammer at the image. Well, now you can. Check out AdCritic.com. They have the top 100 ads on their site saved in Apple's QuickTime format (which is not implicated in the virus noted above). Oh, unless you have a very fast connection, don't bother viewing any of the commercials. They run anywhere from 4.3MB for the "1984" ad to 16.3MB for the Clinton "Final Days" send-up. Thanks (I think) to Paul Dombrosky for the link.
There have been intermittent problems at Pair.com. This has knocked Pournelle, Thompson, and myself off the net. Mail has also gone done at the same time as the web sites. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Have a Good Weekend Everyone, Aloha!
© 2000 Daniel K. Seto. All rights reserved.