Das Boot

Every six months or so I reformat my C: drive (leaving D: alone since that's where I keep my data) so I can get rid of all the junk that get's left in the registry and /winnt/system32 over time. This is especially so because I take a look at new programs and then uninstall them. Unfortunately, many of these program do not delete all of the stuff they've added. Thus, over time, the registry becomes bloated with keys that lead nowhere.

Now, yes, you can run various programs that say they will clean the registry but I have not found them to be of that much use. Other utilities allege that they track the changes that installing programs make and allow you to reverse all the changes. But I've also found these programs to be of little use, and some of them actually cause registry problems or otherwise make the system unstable.

So, the point of this is that I reinstall Windows twice a year. And the MSDN Windows 2000 CD-ROM I have is not bootable. Why MS makes CDs available that are not bootable I do not know. What you have to do is create boot diskettes (four of them). Then trundle through each to get the system setup to run the regular install on the CD.

This is not only bothersome, but it is a waste of time. Last week, I decided to do something about it. I knew that there were sites that had instructions on how to make a CD bootable. So I fired up Google and searched on "bootable cd" and hit Bart's Way to create a bootable CD. It seemed like a knowledgable site and the instructions were relatively clear. But it didn't work. I followed the instructions to the letter, started the burn, and created coasters. As far as I can see, the software used to burn the CD is either not setup correctly or is simply buggy. I don't know which and I don't care.

So it was back to Google where I found this site here. The instructions are confusing (use the example for XP if you have 2000) and it uses Nero Burning Rom (which is itself a testament on how not to create an interface) to do the burning. But in the end, I had a bootable MSDN Win 2000 CD-ROM. Now I don't have to feed four diskettes every time I do my semi-yearly house cleaning. I'll let you know how things go the next time I take out the trash.

Aloha!

The Clueless and Other Dark Secrets

Warning: <Rant Mode="on">

Pair.com, the host for my website, sets their mail servers to accept all mail sent to a particular domain, regardless of what is in front of the "@." This is, at the same time, both very flexible and very stupid because it all ends up in the same mailbox. For example, if I want to create an address of whodaguy@seto.org, I could. But if someone has a domain similar to mine, like seton.org for example, a large non-profit located in Austin, Texas, a lot of mistyped email would be coming my way. And if this organization has a large staff of clueless people, I will be getting a lot of misaddressed email because it will not automatically bounce.

Day after day I get misaddressed mail circulating every Internet hoax there is. I get chain letters. I get resumes. I get personal mail. I get p0rn. I get the nastiest "jokes" that no one with any brains would read, much less forward to 50 of their friends.

Even more infuriating, the IT service desk at seton.org is the most clueless of the lot. I get email after email from them misaddressed to seto.org, even though I've sent them at least 50 e-mails telling them of their error, they mindlessly continue to send email to my domain.

To top it off, for the last two days, I've gotten multiple e-mails from some guy in love with some woman at seton.org. He writes love letters of how he wants to spend hours and hours with her and entreats her to call him. Again and again. Here too I tell him he has the wrong address by manually bouncing the mail (see KMail). But all he does is continue to send emails to the wrong address saying he can't seem to get through anymore. No sh*t. Tell me something I don't know. I've now set up a filter to send his mail to /device/null. Where were these people when the brains were being passed out? Did they mishear things and think someone was saying "rain"?

Speaking of non-profits, I read an article yesterday about how much the heads of these organizations make. Most are in six figures and some, I have no doubt, are probably in the seven figure range. It is a scandal that organizations set up to provide charity services to people would siphon off so much money for themselves.

But it's not only the heads that make outrageous salaries. I've seen local non-profits that hire people with high school diplomas and pay them between $30,000 to $40,000USD. These people are providing counseling services to domestic violence victims and all they have are high school diplomas, while making almost twice what I made when I started in state service with a Bachelor of Science degree. So much money is being diverted to "administrative" costs to pay salaries, rent in high rent districts, high speed computers for people who can barely speak, much less type, that it is no wonder they have so many fund raisers. If the word scandal has any meaning any more, this is the right word to use.<Rant Mode="off" />

Found on the 'Net

Q: How many sub-editors does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: We can't tell whether you mean "insert a new light bulb" or "have sexual relations inside a light bulb". Can we reword it to remove ambiguity?

Q: How many art directors does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Does it have to be a light bulb?

Q: How many proof readers does it take to change a light bulb?
A: The last time this was asked it involved Art Directors. Is the difference intentional? It seems inconsistent.

Q: How many writers does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Why do we have to change it?

Q: How many editors does it take to change a light bulb?
A: It was supposed to be in place last week!

Q: How many publishers does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Three. One to screw it in and two more to hold down the editor.

Q: How many marketing directors does it take to change a light bulb?
A: It isn't too late to make it neon, is it?

Q: How many advertising directors does it take to change a light bulb?
A: We're not sure because the client might change it tomorrow. Cut some editorial anyway.

Q: How many sales directors does it take to change a light bulb?
A: (pause) I get it! It's one of those light bulb jokes, right?

Two boys are playing football in the park, when a Rottweiler jumps from the bushes and attacks them. One of the boys thinks quickly: he grabs a stick, and clubs the dog over the head, killing it. A reporter has been watching this, and asks to interview the boys for the local rag.

"What are you going to call the story?" says the boy.

"I'll call it "Manchester United Fan rescues friend from horror dog attack" replies the reporter. "But I'm not a United fan", whines the boy.

"Ok," says the journalist, "Manchester City fan saves friend from horror dog attack" - how's that?"

"But I support Liverpool", the boy replies.

Next day, the kid rushes to read the local paper. The headline? "Scouse Bastard kills family pet"

Aloha!

The More Things Change

The anniversary of this site came and went without me remembering which day it was. Sigh. But a quick look back (see it here) finds my first post on Wednesday, October 20, 1999. The hot topic for the week was the possible longshoremen strike.

My current site, however, wasn't my first site. Back a few years earlier (1996?), when I was with www.aloha.net, I created a small site with a few links and pictures and then eventually started posting. It's long gone now, at least in Internet years, but I liked aloha.net. Too bad they were bought out by a mainland company which seemed to do everything it could to run it into the ground.

Hello? Anyone Home?

I've been thinking about this for awhile and I guess the press finally has picked up on the possible relationship between what they say on TV and who the Washington, D.C. area sniper shoots next (see the story here). Perhaps the next story can say the sniper has yet to shoot a repor...nah. Not going to say it. That would be in poor taste.

Flying Blind

In what is termed the first case of its kind, a U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida Judge has ruled that Southwest Airlines does not need to modify its website to meet the Americans with Disability Act (ADA) because the ADA does not apply to web sites (See one article here. The article has a link to the opinion, in pfd format (almost 2MB in size)).

The ruling carefully, and narrowly delineates (remember what region/state this ruling comes from) the scope of the act and notes that it is the proper role of Congress to expand, or not expand, the reach of this law, as Congress sees fit.

The ruling footnotes, what I feel is the greater question: rather than go to court, why didn't the parties simply work their differences out? In my opinion, one reason is that the W3C guidelines are singularly confusing and lacking in detail and examples. Further, the guidelines appear to be arbitrary and capricious in what is required. For example, using tables for formating is deprecated. Thus, forcing millions of people to upgrade their browsers to CSS compatible versions. And lastly, according to reports, while the guidelines have been available for some three years, there has been no indication that it have been generally accepted as the standard to follow. In fact, there are several "guidelines" from several sites, each making their own recommendations.

Having said the above, I believe we should move towards greater accessibility, regardless of the law, to our sites because it enables more people to read what we have to say. Further, for commercial sites, it opens the doors to a wider audience, and the possibility of greater sales. This could be a competitive advantage which, if an open market is operating, will drive out those who do not comply. And finally, there needs to be one unified standard which all browsers can be written to. I, for one, believe it should be the W3C, although they need to amend theirs to be clearer as to what is required.

Mail Call

From: JERRY ANCION
To: Dan Seto
Sent: Wednesday, October 23, 2002 4:07 AM
Subject: InterActual

Hi Dan,

Search engine found your piece on INTERACTUAL...[Editor's note: Interactual publishes DVD viewing software that is bundled on many DVDs. Unfortunately, the software includes what some term "spyware" that sends information back to their servers when you use their software.]

How in the hell do you get rid of this dang thing? I uninstalled it, but it simply hides somewhere like a spider and tries to reinstall every time I insert a DVD.

It appears that they hide in in a .cab file - along with some system files. If I change the name of the .cab file, the other DVD software wont work.

This is a real piece of crap.

Thanks,

Jerry Ancion

----- Original Message -----
From: Dan Seto
Sent: Wednesday, October 23, 2002 1:22 PM
To: JERRY ANCION
Subject: Re: InterActual

Hi Jerry,

As far as I know, the software is part of various DVDs. When you insert the DVD, it tries to install itself. All you have to do is exit out of the install program and use some other DVD viewer (I use Cyperlink's PowerDVD).

Yes, using another viewer means you will not be able to access all of the content on some of the DVDs. There is no way around it, AFAIK. Perhaps others have found a workaround but I am unaware of any such hacks.

But as I mention in my post, if you really want to use Interactual, you can turn off most, if not all, of the spyware. The choice is yours to make.

I choose not to use it because how can I trust a company that uses such "features"?

Sorry I can't be of any help on this. Let me know if you find anything that can help you and I'll share it with my readers. Good luck.

Aloha - Dan

----- Original Message -----
From: JERRY ANCION
To: Dan Seto
Subject: Re: InterActual
Date: Wed, 23 Oct 2002 13:36:56 -0400

I have spent the better part of the AM trying to get rid if that software. It has installed all over the place. I use Power DVD also, and it had gotten into that configuration also. It even works around the system restore. after I deleted a sub-directory in one of the restore cabinet files that looked like theirs, and disabled the disk detector in the system setup, I have managed to at least keep it from coming up every time I put in a CD. I don't particularly like auto detect anyway, but some softwares are difficult to get started if you have it disabled.

This got into my system when I responded to a prompt to install a windows media player update - which would pop-up occasionally. I started it and went to bed, because it was 40MB or so and I am on a phone modem.

It disappears from its directory as soon as it is installed.

Thanks for the response. I have emailed Interactual for instructions and if they tell me anything solid, I will pass it along to you - but I doubt they will reply to my email-I tend to get a little sarcastic!

Jerry

---

Date: Wed, 23 Oct 2002 08:31:57 +0200
To: Dan Seto
From: Jan Swijsen
Subject: rant ...
Organization: Oce

<quote>
...Did they mishear things and think someone was saying "rain"?...
</quote>

Billboard reads : "Brain" distributed today at 8:00
Moron-to-be say: "What? I already had breakfast, I don't need no more Bran." and walk on.

Regards,
Svenson.

Aloha!

One of those days

Sometimes I feel like I'm trying to hold back the tides of laziness/arrogance. For example, I'm working on putting some comparison numbers together. To do that, I use an annual databook. In running the numbers, I notice that the year-ending numbers do not match the following year's start numbers. So, of course, I'm curious as to why that is so.

I contact the person in charge of compiling and publishing the numbers and s/he tells me if I understood how statistics were gathered I would know the answer [insert the sound of someone slowly counting to ten]. Then s/he tells me I should read the footnotes [insert the sound of someone slowly counting to 100]. Unfortunately, the footnotes say, now get this, the numbers for the year-end do not match the following year's start. Well, duh. S/He then refers me to the information systems branch to be educated.

Perhaps it's not too late to have the Washington, D.C. press to run a story [see post from yesterday]. Just kidding [crossing fingers and counting to 1000].

The Tooth Fairy and Cold Fusion

One of the interesting stories of the late 20th century was the hysteria over cold fusion. There is a rather long article here that dissects cold fusion and makes a parallel observation regarding ESP. As you might expect, some of the article is technical, but the majority of it can be understood by most people.

The main thesis is that the relentless application of the scientific method will eventually weed out avenues of research that are without merit. But having said that, there will always be people who will believe in the Tooth Fairy because they want, and perhaps, need to.

Scientific and Technical University for Politically Intelligent Development

For those of you thinking about a multi-cultural, politically correct career in physics research, you must take at least three of the classes listed at this site here. Some examples of the courses offered include: P116 - Quantum Mechanics: Contributions of Indigenous Peoples, P326 - Advanced Psychophysics, and P382 - Social Justice at the Subatomic Level.

Aloha!

PsychoBabble

One of the problems with racial profiling is that not everyone you are looking for will fit the profile. In fact, when applied to a single person, such profiling can actually work against you.

Such appears to be one of the lessons of the hunt for the Washington, D.C. area sniper (can someone come up with an easy to remember tag for this guy?). Early reports indicate he may have come in contact with law enforcement personnel at least three times during the investigation but was passed over because he was not an angry lone white male driving a white van or truck.

I realize that in these cases you have to narrow the scope of your search or you will bring everything to a halt trying to inspect everyone and every vehicle. However, the trick in doing this is that you have to keep, in the back of your mind, that the profile could be wrong and that you have to keep looking for things that just don't fit. Those small things, like a report of a Chevy Caprice racing away from the scene of the shooting. Like a report of the siting of the same Chevy near the scene of another. Like the picture of the car running a red light leaving the scene of another.

If you choose to ignore those things, people will die.

Counting Down

We have a week to go before TheMove. On one hand, we can't wait to move. On the other, we have a lot to pack before we do. It will be race to get everything ready.

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!