Deadly Rain

I see that the rains have hit our cousins across the pond. Unfortunately, they've hit here pretty hard too. Yesterday, on the island of Mau'i, five people in a Jeep Cherokee SUV were trying to cross a rain swollen river. The water picked the SUV up, spun it around a couple of times, and then flipped it over. Three of the five died, two others were able to get out of the submerged vehicle and swim to safety.

Belief-O-Matic

I'll let this website describe itself:

Even if YOU don't know what faith you are, Belief-O-Matic knows. Answer 20 questions about your concept of God, the afterlife, human nature, and more, and Belief-O-Matic will tell you what religion (if any) you practice...or ought to consider practicing.

Warning: Belief-O-Matic assumes no legal liability for the ultimate fate of your soul.

Follow this link here to see where you fall. Below is the first 10 of my list based on my answers:

1. Conservative Protestant (100%)

2. Jehovah's Witness (94%)

3. Latter-day Saint (Mormon) (94%)

4. Orthodox Quaker (90%)

5. Liberal Protestant (83%)

6. Seventh-day Adventist (83%)

7. Eastern Orthodox (78%)

8. Roman Catholic (78%)

9. Bahá'í (75%)

10. Liberal Quaker (63%)

STS-51-L

On this day in 1986, it was a very cold, but clear morning in Florida. In Hawai'i, I was on my way to work when there came an emergency news announcement on the radio. 73 seconds into the mission of the space shuttle Challenger (named after the 1870s British Naval research vessel HMS Challenger), a leak of hot gases, caused by the failure of an o-ring in one of the two solid booster rockets, caused the main liquid fuel tank to explode.

Killed were spacecraft commander Francis R. (Dick) Scobee, pilot Michael J. Smith, mission specialists Judith A. Resnik; Ronald E. McNair; and Ellison S. Onizuka, payload specialist Gregory B. Jarvis, and teacher Sharon Christa McAuliffe.

Aloha!

A Phil Hough Day(tm)

Not much going on today. The rain continues, making driving especially dangerous. In class last night, we tried to come up with characteristics of a good leader. As you would expect, things like honesty, a good listener and communicator, integrity, flexibility, etc were listed. In fact, we filled the entire chalk board with different things. And yet, I don't think you will ever find anyone who would have all of those characteristics. From there, the discussion kind of drifted into relativism and how everything is situation based. In other words, there is no right or wrong, just shades of grey, depending on the view you take.

Personally, I think there are certain principles that are inalienable. All are linked by respect, either for yourself or others:

1. To know what is just and unjust, and then act in the former (this assumes the knowledge or wisdom to know the difference, and the will to act).

2. To know one's own biases, and those around him or her, and to ensure they do not sway your decisions.

3. Do not be greedy or let envy be your guide.

4. Focus on the greater public good, not on personal or narrowly focused special interests.

5. Exercise the self-discipline to do your best, even when you just don't feel like it or are tired or angry.

6. Always be honest, but temper that with kindness.

7. Be goal oriented, have a direction.

8. Seek out feedback, know how you are doing by asking others, and then make corrections.

9. Have a passion for what you do. If you aren't engaged by what you are currently doing, do yourself, and everyone a favor and do something else.

10. Look for the opportunity in the crisis, it's always there, even if at first we don't see it.

Aloha!

Political Posturing

Part of our assignment for our class is to keep a journal to record what qualities we observe leaders exhibiting. Leaders being defined broadly to include anyone from your immediate supervisor up to public figures like the President. Below is my first journal entry.

1/30/02 5:15am. KHNL News - live feed from New York where a wreath laying ceremony is about to begin. Speaking is N.Y. Governor George Pataki. He finishes his brief remarks and yields the microphone to Afghan Hamid Karzai. At least, he sort of yields the mike and the limelight of the mike and Karzai.

In order to speak directly into the mike, Karzai gently nudges Pataki aside. Pataki, however, barely moves and seems to not know what Karzai wants him to do, so Karzai, looking a little uncomfortable, begins his own remarks relating to a memorial to the victims of the September 11th attack.

My take is Pataki wanted to get a halo effect by being associated with Karzai and the national coverage that goes with the Afghan leader. Hence, he wanted to make sure he was in camera range at all times and to be seen as a leader worthy of national attention.

Stanford's Zimbardo Prisoner Experiment

Speaking of inflated egos, I think I've talked about this classic psychological experiment gone bad before (see a website here based on the experiment) but there is a new twist to it. The San Francisco Chronicle (see the story here) is reporting the BBC will create a TV series based, in part, on the mock prison experiment. All I can say is do we really need to see people have mental breakdowns on TV? As Doc Searls put it recently, we are now there. And we didn't need a hand basket.

Aloha!

Windows on Linux

I think it's safe to say that Windows is still the most used desktop operating system today. But as more and more people become dissatisfied with Redmond's offerings, they are seeking a bridge to something else. That is, they yearn for something more stable/cheaper, but at the same time don't want to give up their favorite Windows applications.

As many of you know, there are a couple of ways of running Windows applications under Linux. Or at least, trying to. The most basic is to use a compatibility layer called Wine (go here to see a database of what applications run under Wine. It's interesting to note that at least one Windows virus, SirCam, will apparently run under Wine. But I digress). Be aware that they consider Wine as "still under development, and is not suitable for general use". After trying to run something as simple as notepad, I would agree with that. Use at your own risk. Your mileage may vary. The door is ajar.

The other alternative is VMWare's Workstation 3.0. WS 3.0 creates a virtual machine on to which you can install Windows, or other operating system for that matter. I know fellow Daynoter Brian Bilbrey, and others, have had good success with this. Unfortunately, I have yet to get it running in a token-ring environment. In fact, recently, when I tried to get it running under Red Hat 7.2, I found that the install did not like the gcc 2.96 compiler that Red Hat uses nor the placement of the C headers. When I get around to it, I'll try it under Mandrake (who I understand, referring to Mandrake, not WMware, will be coming out with a new version, Mandrake ver 8.2, towards the end of March) but I figure I'll still have problems getting it running, especially the token-ring part and also access to our Novell Netware servers, which requires IPX running (which would require Linux to be running IPX. Which would require recompiling the kernel.). But perhaps I ask too much of Linux and VMware.

In either case, if you are in an Ethernet environment, perhaps VMware is the way to go as an interim solution. But in the end, given the problems of running native Windows apps under Linux, you will probably have to bite the bullet and go to native Linux applications. The question is do you spend the time learning the new applications now, or later?

Linux on Windows

For those of you who want to get your webbed feet wet, while still staying close to the comforting shore of Windows, there is a way of running an Unix environment under Windows. You can run something called Cygwin. Be forewarned that this implementation, as with any other, is limited by the underlying Windows APIs and hardware, so don't expect everything to look or run just like a native Unix environment. Having said that, many of the Gnu utilities run just fine in a command line mode.

If you are really feeling lucky, you can then try layering XFree86 and Qt on top of that. Why? Because, with those loaded and running, you can then try installing KDE! Imagine KDE, and KOffice running in a Windows environment. Unfortunately, for many people, imagining is about all you'll be able to do. But for those intrepid few who can not resist a challenge (or need to have their medications adjusted), go for it.

Mail Call

From: Ward Gerlach
To: Dan Seto
Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2002 5:46 PM
Subject: Leadership

>From my USN service, as I recall, the prime ingredient that a leader needs is that unmistakable, but undefinable ability to persuade normally rational people to do, without question, the highly unlikely.

For a small sample,

In fairly recent history, that would include Adolf Hitler (extermination), Winston Churchill (Battle of Britain), Franklin Roosevelt (Great Depression and WW2), Mao (extermination AND the Long March), Douglas MacArthur (Philippines 1941-42), and numerous others. Their leadership qualities are beyond doubt, but HOW did they do it?

>From my experience in the US Navy, 1969-1973, CPO Bill Lloyd certainly had it. You wouldn't believe what he had me doing...

Regards....

Ward Gerlach

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Benjamin Franklin

From: Dan Seto
To: Ward Gerlach
Subject: Re: Leadership
Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2002 06:44:55 -1000

For the most part, people need some credible (to them anyway) external force which has the potential to cause harm (physical or otherwise). In times of war, the threat is easier to define. In times of peace, the threat is usually economic, although there have been instances of religion based bogeymen but that typically became an instance of war.

But if it was easy to motivate people to change there wouldn't be a growing industry in books and speakers in the field...

Thanks for your thoughts.

Aloha - Dan

It's Friday!

SPAM! SPAM! SPAM!

As part of my review of Red Hat 7.2, I created a new throw away account at hotmail.com. The only use of that account was to register at the Red Hat Network. Yesterday, about a week since I set up the account, I had nine SPAM messages waiting. As far as I can tell, there are only two entities that knew of that email account. Hotmail itself and Red Hat. You pick which one it was that the SPAMMERS got the address from because I have no way of knowing. All I can say it was one of the two.

Say What?

The Morningpaper(tm) reports a Swedish court ruled yesterday that a 35-year-old Swedish man, who donated his sperm to a lesbian couple, is the legal father of the three children produced from that donation and must pay child support. The mother of the children asked the donor to pay support after the relationship with her lesbian partner ended last year.

Slippery Slope Ahead

Speaking of children, there is a report that the Bush administration is pushing a plan that would make health insurance available to a fetus. Don't get me wrong,I think pre-natal care is instrumental in providing a good start to a health baby. But usually, the health insurance is for the mother, not the unborn fetus. I wonder if anyone in the administration has thought this through.

If health benefits start at conception, it's not that far down the road that welfare and food stamps would follow. Now, don't ask me how a fetus would make use of those benefits (who do you make the check out to? Unborn fetus number one?) I dunno. Maybe this is one of those things I just don't understand.

Back Home

Work on the back house on our property, which started out well, has slowed lately. It looks like some drywall work was done patching some of the holes in the wall that were opened up to do some plumbing work, but little else was done. There is much to do yet before we will be able to move from the front house to the back.

Some of the things yet do be done are the creation of a closet, conversion of a half-bath to storage room, expanding the number of kitchen cabinets, painting, and carpets. Maybe in about six months things will be done. I hope.

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!