Can You Hear Me Now?

Just one more example of how MS is turning people to Linux. As some of you may know, Microsoft has revamped their Windows Update site (if you tried to get updates in the past few weeks you ran into all kinds of errors, including the site asking for your login and password). No, they didn't do it to make it more efficient or customer friendly. They did it to block "pirated" Windows XP installations from being updated. According to a report from TheRegister, the site now checks the validity of your activation code. If it's not valid, you can't download the beta SP1, and one would assume, or any other XP specific updates.

Your Tax Dollars at Work

A lot of good work is being done at the Lawrence Livermore Labs located just east of San Francisco, California. Part of that work includes radioactive substances, some of which has to be disposed of when they are done. So, the federal government spent $62 million of your dollars to build a storage and processing plant to take care of the waste. Only, given the target rich environment we now live in, it has since be declared too insecure to be used. So, you ask, where is the low-grade radioactive waste being stored? Under tents. In day-glow yellow drums stacked up next to the building. See the story here.

String Them Along

First, let me say I know nothing about the quantum mechanics of the universe (no, not the ones that change the oil on the space shuttle in 30 minutes or less). I'm talking here about superstring theory. Sort of the unified theory for physicists. If you are interested in the Intro to superstring theory version, follow this Kuro5hin link here. Be aware though, that if you don't know your Fermion from a Boson, this could still give you a headache.

Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion. - Diogenes Laertius - Aloha!

State Holiday

King Kamehameha Day.

Dewey Doesn't

I was once asked what my idea of heaven was like. I answered saying I thought it would be like a library. A place where the knowledge of the ages were all in one place. A place where one could learn about whatever they wanted to learn about. I think from this you could get the understanding that I love libraries.

So recently I was more than a little disappointed in our State Librarian. But first, some background information. Perhaps unique to Hawai'i, all of the public libraries are funded and run by the state. For the most part, this works well because even the smallest county will have a library. A library they could not otherwise afford.

Well, the legislature, in its great wisdom, built a beautiful new library for the city of Kapolei, situated on the dry Ewa plain of O'ahu. Unfortunately, they failed to provide for the purchasing of any books. They did appropriate funds for librarians, however, but no books. Now the State Librarian is having a hissy fit. She is framing the problem in terms of legislative funding. And from her perspective she is correct. The legislature does need to provide the ongoing funding for the purchase of books because the value of a library is found in its books, not the building or its staff (important as both are).

But the community of Kapolei looks at the problem in a different light. They are the customers of the service and they don't want to wait another year or two to use their new library. So some of them banded together and were willing to donate money and books to get the library opened. This kind of community involvement and taking ownership in solving a problem is what made America great. Unfortunately, our State Librarian refused the help saying it would be a temporary fix so please get lost and let the professionals do their job.

Excuse me? Say what? While I appreciate the fact that librarians are the professionals and you don't build a well-thought out collection of books haphazardly, you also have to remember who the customers are and who you work for. So, if the customers want the library open, and are willing to donate more of their hard earned money to do it, why are you slapping them in the face and telling them to go away and don't bother you because you have more important things to do (like dust the empty shelves)?

A huge opportunity was lost here. And I'm afraid the lesson learned by the community is one of cynicism and distrust in government. Sigh.

When will we learn that the power to govern comes through the consent of those who are governed? We no longer have royalty, even though some administrators may think royal blood pulses through their arteries. So let's stop acting like kings and more like servants.

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it. -- Thomas Jefferson to Archibald Stuart, 1791 - Aloha!

Cult of Irrationality

In talking about the party convention last week, I remarked in passing about having trouble figuring out how to deal rationally with people who hold irrational beliefs. After thinking about this for awhile, I'm coming to the conclusion that you can't. I'll explain below.

First, let me say that how one person defines rational may be considered loony by another. For example, many atheists think Christians are irrational, and vice versa. However, it would be incorrect to therefore jump to the erroneous conclusion that everything is relative. While some things clearly are, not everything is so. And if this is true, then it follows that if you deny reality, you are either acting irrationally or at least actively blocking having to deal with the logical consequences of the information (commonly referred by the psychological community as cognitive dissonance).

So how do people gain knowledge (operationally defined as behavioral change)? There are two broad ways. Direct and indirect experience.

By direct experience I mean you use one of your senses to perceive a change in your environment. For example, you see a car accident in front of you. Or you go to the opera and listen to the singing and watch the acting. Or you plan and implement a scientifically controlled experiment. The main idea is that you gather the information first hand.

Conversely, indirect experience is information gained from others. This can be in the form of reading a book or magazine, watching a television program, or talking with someone who may have had a direct experience. The point here is that you gain the information from a source other than your self.

But if gaining knowledge is all that was needed to change people's minds, life would be easy. But it's not. You can give people all kinds of information that would be helpful to them but that doesn't mean they will change their behavior. For example, all of us know of people who smoke, even though every Surgeon General for the last 40 years has warned everyone of the connection to mouth/throat/lung cancer/heart disease. Or you may know of people who drive without buckling up because they feel they either won't be in an accident, or that by not wearing a seat belt, they will somehow be "thrown free" in an accident and therefore be safer than staying in the car.

I could cite other behaviors that run counter to the facts, as we know them, but you get the point. From a behavioral perspective, there can be no change without the ability to sense the stimulus. But the mere sensing of the stimulus is insufficient to explain the lack of a response. So I get back to my original question, how do you get people to voluntarily change their behavior when they refuse to accept reality? As far as I can see, you can't.

Carpet Baggers

I've also been talking about the ongoing problem finding someone to carpet our house. One of the places we contacted was Home Depot. Of the three places we contacted, they were the only one to charge for an estimate. They wanted $30 USD upfront. If you buy the carpet from them they will include the $30, otherwise not. So we paid our $30 and waited for a call from the estimator - which we got yesterday. Only, they don't come out after 2:00pm or on weekends. That means I would have to take time off from work, which is a cost to me, to be there when they come over.

Hmmm, what was that about the customer always being right? What was that about treating customers well because they are your true boss? I said it before, and I'll say it again, this whole industry is rife with arrogant idiots who don't give a rat's okole about customer service. As far as they are concerned, they've got your money and if you don't like what they give you, too bad.

Well, I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it. If they don't have an estimator that is customer friendly then we will demand our money back and go somewhere else. Even if that somewhere else costs us more than Home Depot. Not recommended.

Oh, by the by. LAKERS WIN! LAKERS WIN! LAKERS WIN!

...the future business of businesses that have a future will be about subtle differences, not wholesale conformity; about diversity, not homogeneity; about breaking rules, not enforcing them; about pushing the envelope, not punching the clock; about invitation, not protection; about doing it first, not doing it "right"; about making it better, not making it perfect; about telling the truth, not spinning bigger lies; about turning people on, not "packaging" them; and perhaps above all, about building convivial communities and knowledge ecologies, not leveraging demographic sectors. - The Cluetrain Manifesto : The End of Business As Usual by Christopher Locke, Rick Levine, Doc Searls, David Weinberger - Aloha!

It's Friday!

Fontabulous

Periodically, I check to see what the state of the art is in font readability. Why? First because I want my site to be as easy to read as possible. Because if you can't read it, you can't understand what is being said. And secondly, the state of the art is a moving target.

My most recent foray into the font forest was precipitated by Dr. Pournelle mentioning how much he likes the MS Georgia font (see his Byte column here). Georgia is one of several fonts MS makes available for free download here. They are available in both Windows and Mac versions. If you don't already have these fonts installed, I suggest you do so as soon as possible.

Why install these? Because they were specifically designed for viewing on monitors (which have a much lower resolution, if I may use that word in this context, typically 72 to 96dpi, as compared to the printed word, typically 300 to 3,000dpi).

Since the resolution is lower, many web design sites also indicate you should use a sans-serif font for better readability. The reason being the serifs, sometimes referred to as hints, do not display well at such low resolutions.

So which font is best? Well, after reading a couple of studies (Software Usability Research Lab, Dept of Psychology, Wichita State University here, and Dr. Ralph Wilson here), the answer seems to be, drum roll please, it depends. It depends on what font, the size of the font, what color the font is versus the background, the length of the line of text on the screen, and probably the phase of the moon. With so many variables interacting with each other, picking one font that will work for all people viewing at all font sizes is literally impossible.

As for this site, I specify Verdana, a sans-serif font with lots of white space in it. But many of you don't have that font so the fall backs are Arial and generic sans-serif. Of course, the setting in your browser can override whatever a website specifies so you may be viewing this in something completely different. Whichever the case, there isn't a universal font that works under all conditions so as far as I'm concerned, choose whichever one works best for you. YMMV.

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!