Welcome to The New World. Well, it may not be the Millennium yet, but I decided to start using my new, but not improved, shell for these posts. Mostly, because I have my editor (HTML-Kit) set-up to use XHTML and I'm too lazy to change the settings back. So what you are seeing is probably how things will look for the next year or so. If you have any problems viewing, or any comments at all, please let me know what you think.
New Members. The BackChannel talk yesterday was about adding new members to the Daynotes family. Right now, there are over 20 members, most of which have been added in the last year.
I hadn't really thought about it until I started working on a Christmas tribute to the Daynoters and realized, there were so many people I would probably inadvertently leave someone out. So I nixed that idea and gave up. There's just too many now. I used to be able to read the posts from the entire list, top to bottom, in maybe 15 or 20 minutes. While I still try to do that, now-a-days, there's just too many and sometimes I miss a few here and there.
As for me, I think Sjon got it right the last go around when he talked about a conversation leading to consensus as being the "right" way of deciding who is added and who isn't. On the other hand, voting will probably be the way things will be done (now where's my punch card from Florida?). 'tis a pity.
I don't know what the future will bring to Daynotesville, but as Bob Dylan said;
Come gather round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a'changin'
Aloha!
Top / Home / Monday / Tuesday / Wednesday / Thursday / FridayTuesday - 19 December 2000
Rocky Coast Ahead! I got an email from Bob Sprowl who notes that my new format doesn't work in Netscape 4.7 in that the border overlaps the text. I will temporarily change to no border at all while I try to download a version of Navigator. I haven't had much luck since the Netscape ftp server either is not taking any more connections or is down right now. I do know that the page looks fine in Navigator 4.75 for Linux, so perhaps it's a version specific kind of thing. In either case, I will take another look at it as soon as I can download Navigator for Windows (probably the new version 6.0). Thanks again Bob for the feedback, much appreciated although you may need to upgrade or switch browsers if I can't get it to work with Navigator.
Mayan Malls. It's hard to imagine the average Mayan teenager telling her mother that she was heading down to the mall to shop but according to an article (see it here) in the New York Times, it could have happened. Apparently, new archeological digs have found evidence of urban sprawl. Including what appears to be suburban strip malls. The new theory contradicts the long held belief that Maya concentrated only in cities around a core hub. The article is unclear as to whether the valley girls also used their parents charge cards while shopping.
Bass Ackwards. I try to be a good soldier at work. You know, keep your head down and just follow orders. But sometimes, it gets kind of frustrating working here. For example, I'm writing a paper on the benefits of consolidating our Circuit and District Courts into one super duper one size fits all court.
While there are good arguments on both sides of this issue, that's not what I was told to write. I'm supposed to list only the benefits, not the downside. Why? Because the decision to move to this kind of court has already been made and now they want the justification to back up their decision. Hmmm. Isn't that supposed to be the other way around? Aren't you supposed to look at both sides of a question, and then come to consensus with all of the stake holders? I guess it's just me, but it sure seems like we've been doing a lot of this kind of thing lately.
And what's worse, when I tried to bring some balance to the paper by noting some of the problems with this type of court, my boss edited all of that out and said we don't want the Big Boss to get mad. Hmmm. How am I supposed to serve the greater public good if the managers don't want to speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Sigh. Sorry for that rant but I guess whatever fellow Daynoter Tom Syroid has must be catching <G>
Well, back to the salt mines - Aloha!
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Hump Day Wednesday - 20 December 2000
200 Year-Old Whales? The San Jose Mercury News has an article (see it here for seven days, after that it's gone) on the age of whales that blows old assumptions to bits.
In studies that could rewrite biology textbooks and establish whales as the longest-living mammals on Earth, scientists in Alaska and at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla have estimated the ages of three bowhead whales killed by Inupiat Eskimos in northern Alaska at 135 to 172 years. At the time it was killed, a fourth bowhead whale was believed to be a stunning 211 years old, the researchers concluded.
Why I do These Things? Someone reading my travails with HTML/XHTML/XML/etc would probably wonder why I do these strange things. Why not just use one of those free web sites that does everything except think for you?
Well, Virginia, it's because I like to get under the hood and get my hands dirty. As an aside, I used to work on cars all the time. But when they started putting COMPUTERS in them, that's where I drew the line. What next? Automatic transmissions? If God had meant us to use such transmissions, He wouldn't have given us three feet. Errr. Let me think about that one...[Don't mind Dan, he's had a hard couple of weeks - Ed.]
But I digress. One of the goals I set for myself, when I first started this site, was to learn about things like HTML, Perl, Unix, SMTP, POP3, Apache, etc. The way that I've found to do this is to just dive in and try it. Now I'm the first to say that maybe that isn't the best way of doing things. Or at least, not always the best way of doing things. But for the most part, diving in is how I experiment with this stuff.
Right now, I'm experimenting with XHTML. Why? Because it is the follow-on to HTML 4.x. (see it XHTML 1.0 here). And because it can, in XHTML Basic form (upgraded yesterday to Recommendation by the W3C), be read by devices other than PCs running browsers. In other words, PDAs, pagers, phones, etc.
I don't expect too many people will be accessing my pages by anything other than a browser, but then, theoretically, I could format the page to work with everything else if I wanted to. The main point is this is probably the way things will be done in the future, so I may as well start learning now.
Speaking of Browsers. I incorrectly spelled Bob Sprowl's name yesterday. Sorry about that Bob. I've corrected it above and include our emails back and forth:
From: Bob Sprowl
To: Dan Seto
Sent: Monday, December 18, 2000 2:19 PM
Subject: Daynote pagesI use Netscape 4.7 and find your pages unreadable. Specifically the left border overlaps the text.
----- Original Message -----
From: Dan Seto
To: Bob Sprowl
Sent: Tuesday, December 19, 2000 6:24 AM
Subject: Daynote pagesThanks for the info. I'll download Netscape (I've only checked it in IE and Opera) and make adjustments to my page.
----- Original Message -----
From: Bob Sprowl
To: Dan Seto
Sent: Tuesday, December 19, 2000 6:42 PM
Subject: Re: Daynote pagesI just visited your daynotes. It's Sprowl. (No need to correct your Daynotes but I thought you would like to get it right in the future.) And I recently upgraded to 4.75 from 4.0. I really like software that is throughly tested!! I don't use Internet Explorer/Outlook so I can avoid many viruses with not a lot of effort.
I downloaded Opera a few months ago but then my system had to be rebuilt before I got it installed and I just have down loaded it again.
----- Original Message -----
From: Dan Seto
To: Bob Sprowl
Sent: Tuesday, December 19, 2000 8:15 PM
Subject: Daynote pagesYikes! You'd think I could at least get that right. Sigh. Sorry about that. I will correct it tomorrow morning.
If you could do me a favor, use Nav. 4.75 and check
http://www.seto.org/diary/2001/j20010101.html
Tell me if it displays okay or not.
----- Original Message -----
From: Bob Sprowl
To: Dan Seto
Sent: Wednesday, December 20, 2000 5:35 AM
Subject: Re: Daynote pagesThe page you wanted me to look at, looks fine (assuming the left border is just a border and doesn't contain anything). It's different but I like it.
In my first email to you I misspelled "thoroughly" as "throughly" so I guess I wasn't prefect Monday either. The other errors were typos and they don't count because I know I can't type, however "throughly" was a spelling error.
. [snipped personal stuff that may get him in trouble - Ed.]
Bob
Thanks for that Bob. I try to be perfict every day, weather or not SWMBO is around or not. Unfortunately, I very rarely reach that goal.
And now, this in from Svenson:
To: Dan Seto
From: Jan Swijsen
Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2000 13:31:19 +0000
Subject: catching>Sigh. Sorry for that rant but I guess whatever fellow Daynoter Tom Syroid has must be catching <G>
Oh dear, if it can get from Canada (-30) to Hawaii (+30) then nobody is safe.
Or it becomes a daynotes-requirement. If the boss (Tom) gets grumpy than the soldiers () must get grumpy too. :-)
>The article is unclear as to whether the valley girls also used their parents charge cards while shopping.
Nope, when shopping in the mall they used their own cards. For online shopping tough ....
--
Svenson.
Aloha
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Thursday - 21 December 2000
Browser Wars III. So I was finally able to download Netscape 6.0. For good measure, I also downloaded Opera 5.01. I haven't used either enough to get a good feel for how well they work but Navigator still looks a little shaky. Perhaps I should have waited for 6.01. But in either case, I wish Netscape well (even as I use Opera and IE for most of my web surfing).
As to my new shell, since it appears okay in IE 5.5, Navigator 6.0, and Opera 5.01, I am reinstating my border on the left. As before, let me know if there are any problems (other than your browser needs to be updated to display XHTML 1.0 and CSS2!).
Surfs Up. The morning paper had a great photo of the waves at Waimea Bay yesterday on O'ahu's North shore. If you figure the guys in the image are about five feet tall (1.5 metres), then the height of the wave, as measured at its highest point on the right to the bottom of the trough would be about 20-ft (6.1 metres). Too bad the wind had picked up. The previous day had smaller 10 to 15-ft (3 to 4.6 metres) waves but had much cleaner form due to almost no wind. Cowabunga Dudes.
Digital Slow Lines. The good news is that DSL service exploded this year. The bad news is that DSL service exploded this year. If you are one of the those intrepid souls who actually dove into the deep end of DSL service, my condolences to you. The Los Angeles Times has yet another article (see it here) on the horror stories of shoddy service and nightmares of divided responsibilities between telcos, DSL providers, and ISPs.
Compared to that, I'm glad I decided to go with the Road Runner cable modem service. I had the luxury of having two options (now three with wireless), DSL or cable modem. Not only does Road Runner appear to be more reliable, it's also cheaper and faster.
The article also points to another interesting point. Namely, most of the DSL companies have business plans that don't show a profit. That is, in the short run, they are losing money hand over fist in the hopes of driving out their competition and then raising their rates to profitable levels. Given this, don't be surprised if many of them go out of business. And those that survive will be raising rates. You heard it here first. Or not.
Private Public Schools. New York City is the latest to try privatizing some of its public schools. The plan, announced yesterday (see an article from the New York Times here) would allow up to five of their worst public schools to be run by a private, for profit group called Edison Schools Incorporated. Perhaps this will help to light the path of the students who, up to now, have not had their light bulbs come on yet. But then again, maybe not.
Mail Call
From: Dan Seto
To: John Dominik
Subject: Voter Turnout
Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2000 08:46:39 -1000"I guess I should have made a bet with Dan Seto about the voter turnout. Minnesota topped the nation in voter turnout, with something over 68% of the eligible people casting votes. Hawai'i? About 40.48%. Ouch."
Ouch is right. There have been various theories about why voter turnout here is low. One says if you don't have a goobernatorial, ahh make that gubernatorial, race no one gets excited ("All politics is local"). Another says people become cynical in a state that has been controlled by one party (i.e., Democrats) since 1954.
Personally, I think it's the weather. Why go and vote when you can go to the beach <BG>?
Aloha from warm and sunny Hawai'i <SFX:Insert here the sound of Don Ho singing "Tiny Bubbles">
----- Original Message -----
From: John Dominik
To: Dan Seto
Subject: Re: Voter Turnout
Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2000 13:04:12 -0600Huh. I dunno about the one-party thing. This state went for Mondale against Reagan - talk about bucking a trend... ;-)
Personally, I think part of it might well lie in the way we vote - you're five or more hours behind the east coast, no? Heck, by the time you folks get off work EARLY to go vote the media's calling the states back east.
Personally, I think we adjust it all for three year terms. Everything. State house, federal house and senate, governor, president, dogcatcher, and fire marshal. And if you folks are as unfortunate as we to vote for your judges, well, then, them too. And have this whole thing happen all at once. Get it all over with.
Campaign reform - any candidate who shows their face in public, let alone spends one dollar on campaign-related expenses prior to July 1 of the campaign year is hauled off and shot. Extreme, but it's reform, right?
Oh, I know there are a million or so problems with it, but it would shorten the silly season. I remember Opus from Bloom County complaining "Who put the presidential elections so close to Halloween?"
From: John Doucette
To: Dan Seto
Sent: Wednesday, December 20, 2000 9:33 AM
Subject: nobody is safeHi Dan
The following from today's post.
>Sigh. Sorry for that rant but I guess whatever fellow Daynoter Tom Syroid has must be catching <G>
> Oh dear, if it can get from Canada (-30) to Hawaii (+30) then nobody is safe.
>Or it becomes a daynotes-requirement. If the boss (Tom) gets grumpy than the soldiers () must get grumpy too. :-)
I have noticed from time to time that several Daynoters will get sick at the same time. Also notice that "bad days" seem to happen to many people at once. Gives some support to the idea that the phase of the moon or the weather affects peoples behavior and well being.
John
Aloha!
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Aloha Friday - 22 December 2000
It's Friday!
The Meaning of Christmas. For some people, the Christmas season is the greatest time of the year. But for others, it's the worst. I guess it's one of those the glass is half-full or half-empty.
But a quick search of the Internet finds as many meanings to the season as there are people to think about it. I've put a few of the links below. I don't necessarily agree with or endorse any of the views expressed, but I think they give a varied view of what's out there.
Here's to hoping that your Christmas season is full of joy and peace.
http://www.preda.org/archives/r99122501.htm
http://www.techdirect.com/christmas/
http://humanist.net/ceremonies/meaning-christmas.html
http://members.aol.com/KristinCh/true.html
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Cafe/4173/christms.htm
Aloha!
© 2000 Daniel K. Seto. All rights reserved.