Rain Man

I guess any sufficiently different idea looks pretty stupid at first glance. And this this one is no different. But I guess it could work. Maybe. What with all the fires burning in the US western states someone has come up with the idea of using gigantic helium filled airships to literally rain down water on the fires. We're talking about something big enough to pump 200,000 litres of water per hour, from a million litre tank onto a fire from an altitude of 1,200 metres. Compare that to your average converted Hercules military aircraft which reportedly carries about 13,000 litres. Talk about thinking outside the box - only, I wonder if they are thinking outside of their minds. YMMV.

Ozzy Aussies

It seems Australian TV 10 will be broadcasting MTV's Ozzy Osbourne show uncut. Or at least almost uncut. According to reports, the word "f*ck" is heard 22 times within the first 10 minutes and 65 times in the 22-minute first episode. What is this world coming to? What's next, dogs living with cats? See the sordid story here.

Right to Arm Bears

Guns and America seem to go together like Mom and apple pie. So it should not come as a surprise that most people in the US believe that the Second Amendment to the US Constitution gives citizens the right to bear arms ("A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."). Having said that, it does not mean most people think there should not be some kind of restriction on ownership/use - which is only common sense. As far as I'm concerned, as long as people store and use them in a responsible way, I don't have a problem with them. See the ABC News poll here.

Palladium Panopticon

MSNBC is reporting (see it here before the link expires) a secret Microsoft plan to have Intel and AMD include security hardware before the planned shipment of MS's next OS in 2004. While the things the security chip will do seems to be expanding, the original intent was to keep you from copying or using software they say you have not paid them enough for.

As this is coming from Microsoft, hardly a disinterested party, one must look with a jaundiced eye as to what the chip will or will not do. One must also remember that the more centralized security becomes, the more vulnerable it is to concentrated attack. And when it fails, which it inevitably it will, the keys to the kingdom will be in the hands of your friendly neighborhood h4x0rz. Have a nice day.

Aloha !

Move Along

Nothing to see here. Move along. Gee, I'm beginning to sound like fellow Daynoter Dr. Keyboard [Heaven forbid! </light hearted kidding>- ed.] I had to do a lab test this morning so I came in late. I've been doing a lot of tests recently with more to come. Until we know for sure what is going on I won't bother you with the details (gory or otherwise). But I can tell you this, I've given so many blood samples recently that they gave up taking blood from my arms. They are now using the back of my hands. First the right, now the left. Vampires.

On the work front, as my vacation time looms closer, it seems more and more is being piled onto my plate. So posts will probably become even shorter than usual. Also, even though I like to do thought pieces every once in awhile, I'm really not in the mood. So what you'll be seeing here is more on the linker side rather than the thinker (thanks to Doc Searls for that).

Aloha!

Paper Strings

Leave it to the Swedes to come up with the latest in women's wear. Paper panties. The wear once and then throw away g-strings are being sold at Sweden's H&M. They say women can use them as spares when they need one but don't have a regular one handy. Hmmm. Nope, [Ducking and ... whack! Too late - ed.] I'm not going there. The story here from Yahoo News.

Tweaks for Geeks

Here's a link to an article on tweaking XP. Most readers of this site will have already heard of most of these but if you are new to computing, there may be something that will be of help. Follow the link down under to TweakTown here.

Tip of the Iceberg

The Chicago Sun-Times has a story here about a lawyer who bills 44 hours per day. Not to be out done, there are mental health providers here that similarly bill at such rates. When the legislature tried to subpoena the providers to have them testify as to how this is possible, a US Federal judge quashed the subpoenas - I guess out of professional courtesy. Unfortunately, it is an open secret that people are billing at rates which are literally impossible, there being only 24 hours in a day. It is only a matter of time before this implodes, just as we are beginning to see how pervasive the accounting scandals in private industry are.

We are Here to Help

The Sierra Club, admittedly not exactly a disinterested party, is reporting here that the US Environmental Protection Agency has been permitting the Army Corps of Engineers to dump 200,000 pounds (about 91,000 kgs) of toxic sludge per year into the Potomac River. Okay, you say. Maybe there's a good reason for that.

Well, according to EPA documents, the reason it is okay is it "protects the fish in that they are not inclined to bite (and get eaten by humans) but they go ahead with their upstream movement and egg laying." In this brilliant bit of deduction, the EPA is saying that by ingesting toxic sludge, the fish become less desirable as food for fishermen. Well, duh.

Using this illogic:

"To suggest that toxic sludge is good for fish because it prevents them from being caught by man is like suggesting that we club baby seals to prevent them from being eaten by sharks. It's ludicrous." Rep. George Radanovich (R-CA).

Don't you just love the twisted logic of government agencies trying to implement the wishes of their political bosses?

Spreading anarchy and polymorphous perversity

I think I've just found the tag line for this site. I got it from an interview of Republican conservative Ann Coulter (see it here) in which she describes liberals as having only one goal in life - "Spreading anarchy and polymorphous perversity." [Actually, that's two goals - ed.] Sounds good to me. At least it's better than spreading toxic sludge.

Aloha!

Vote, eh!

Leave it to the Canadians to find a better way to vote. For some time now, the Northwest Territories have included a photo placard on the walls of the voting place showing pictures of the candidates' faces. Now, the ballot itself will have their pictures. Why? As an aid to those who can't read. Hmmm. Perhaps a few Floridians could have used such a system. Other than that, I could say all kinds of things but I'm not going to. For those who can read, regardless of your nationality, the story is here.

The Threat from Without

As if we didn't have enough of our own problems to deal with, the FBI is apparently waking up to the fact that it's not only script kiddiez who are scanning for vulnerabilities in our computer systems. It seems there have been patterns of scans coming from or through Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Indonesia indicating an interest in finding computer systems that control utility power grids, dam flood gates, telecommunications, networks, air traffic controls, water supplies, etc. In fact, anything that is controlled by digital control processors that can be remotely accessed. You don't need to leap very far to come up with who may be interested in such systems and why. Are these problems unsolvable? No. Will they be solved before attacks occur? No, because attacks have already occurred. See the Washington Post story here.

Industrial Spy vs. Industrial Spy

Is nothing sacred? Do private businesses actually try to break into their competitors systems to steal company data? You bet your database they do. Akamai (Hawai'ian for smart, or intelligent) Technologies is suing rival Speedera co-founder and CTO Richard Day. The suit alleges that Day stole Akamai trade secrets from a protected database maintained by Keynote Systems.

Akamai alleges that Speedera on at least 33 different occasions beginning in February 2002 and continuing until the present broke into a secure computer database and obtained private Akamai data...

The suit states that Day, using a DSL line from his Mountain View, Calif., apartment, broke into a login-protected area of Keynote Systems. The suit continues to state that Day "illegally accessed, stole, and used Akamai's confidential information and data to enable Speedera to compete unfairly and wrongfully against Akamai."

Speedera does not necessarily deny the break in but says any data Keynote has is not proprietary or confidential. So there. See the story here.

Aloha!

Gone to Mau'i

SWMBO and I will be taking a well deserved vacation next week. Hence, there will not be any posts until Tuesday, July 9th. Feel free to check out the other Daynoters while I'm gone.

Can't Get There from Here

As many of you know, the OpenOffice effort is a sub-set of StarOffice. As such, some things that StarOffice can do, OpenOffice can't. One of the things OO can't do is import WordPerfect(r) documents.

While the Hawai'i Judiciary is slowly converting to MS Office, which OO can import, most lawyers and legal eagles still feel more comfortable with WP. Hence, the lingua franca of the courts is WP and not being able to open or create documents in WP format is a show stopping problem.

The obvious solution would be to switch to StarOffice (and pays my money). But that would be too easy. The OO site points to the OpenOffice Documentation Project (see it here) as perhaps a source of WP filter. While I have not done an extensive search of the site (I typed in "wordperfect" in their search engine), it appears they do not have a filter for WP and the only person apparently working on such is requesting money upfront to do so. Nonetheless, I am sure someone, somewhere, sometime will get around to writing one. When they do, let me know and I'll take another look at OpenOffice.

Aqua Marine

With all the problems over at NASA, it is sometimes easy to forget that good science is still being done. For example, NASA launched a satellite on May 4th called Aqua. The purpose of the satellite is to produce images and generate data that give scientists new information about Earth and its oceans by being able to "see" though clouds with its sensors.

Previously, cloud cover prevented accurate measuring of ocean temperatures. But an instrument on Aqua called the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for the Earth Observing System, or AMSR-E, can resolve temperatures through clouds with a high degree of accuracy.

See the CNN story here.

Have a Great Weekend Everyone and I'll see you here on 9 July - Aloha!