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Final Four

The University of Hawai'i Wahine volleyball team just doesn't get any respect. The number two rated team in the nation was seeded sixth in the National Collegiate Athletic Association regional tournament. To add insult to injury, the Wahine were assigned to the Central regional playoffs in Nebraska. Yes, I said Nebraska.

Now, there's nothing wrong with Nebraska, if you are an ear of corn. But how is Hawai'i in the same region as Nebraska? But the team just shrugged it off, flew thousands of miles, and beat the snot out of the University of North Carolina and then the Unverity of Nebraska (after beating Western Kentucky and the University of Washington in the first round at home).

Beating Nebraska was especially significant because the game was played on Nebraska's home court in front of thousands of their fans. To beat a team under those circumstances shows the focus and determination of the Wahine.

The Wahine are now on their way to New Orleans for the final four where they will play against Stanford University, the only team to beat Hawai'i this year. Good luck to the Wahine.

Daynotes Shopping

While the traditional shopping day for true Daynoters is December 24th, most of you will probably start before then. For this year, there are a couple of interesting geek toys. The first is from Italy and is called Geomag (see their site here). Geomag is for those of you who like building things with your hands. The kits consist of magnetic plastic-coated rods and steel spheres which can be connected to create everything from simple 2-dimensional shapes to complex three-dimensional models of cells, chemical structures, or even buildings. Prices range from $20 to $850 for the deluxe set. Hurry on down to your corner Neiman Marcus (or Google on their name) now as supplies are limited (aren't they all? - ed.).

The second are those miniature radio controlled cars. The diminutive dynomos (see some here, here, here, or just do a Google search) have an extremely short range (10 to 50ft) but are a ball to play with. And the price of under $20 is right. If you plan to stage your own mini-race, make sure you get one whose controller allows you to select a frequency so there won't be interference between the cars.

Aloha!

Jingle Bell Run

I forgot to mention that over the weekend, SWMBO and I did the annual Jingle Bell Run. The run, a benefit for the Special Olympics, winds through downtown Honolulu from City Hall to the Aloha Tower. Along the way we got to see the decorations that are put up for the Christmas season (the streets are blocked off to vehicles during the run). Included in the festivities are entertainment, a canine costume contest, and group caroling contest.

Once at the finish, which is at the waterfront, we watched the Hawai'i Yacht Club parade of brightly decorated boats while listening to the entertainment there. A fun time was had by man and beasts.

All is Not Lightness

As mentioned earlier, I decided to switch from Symantec's Norton Utilities/SystemWorks to OnTrack/V-com's Fix-It Utilities. As noted in the name, V-com recently bought Fix-It from OnTrack so one has to expect some problems in transition.

However, the problems I've found are not related to the change in ownership. To start, I did a custom install as I did not need the anti-virus module since I already have the AVG utility. Strangely enough, every time I run the Fix-It update module it wants to download and install a 2.69MB anti-virus definition update. But, of course, if I let it download and install, the install fails because I don't have the anti-virus portion installed in the first place. Brain dead programs are apparently not unique to Symantec.

Neither is it particularly fast. While it is not practical for me to test the two programs side by side, running the Fix-It defrag utility, JetDefrag, seems as slow as Norton's Speed Disk. For example, I ran JetDefrag on a 5GB partition with about half of it used. JetDefrag took 95 minutes to complete while leaving about 100 blocks marked as fragmented, 125 partially used, and 20 "non-optimized."

As a final note, Fix-It installs a link on the Start menu, something I don't particularly want or need. I wish all programs would ask before installing themselves all over the place. But perhaps, it's just me.

As I use the utilities I will let you know if I run into any other problems.

Work in Progress

The second version of my page for next year can be found here. This one is based on the WC3's own index page and also uses Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to create the columns. Please let me know how it displays in your browser. Note that if your browser does not use CSS, the page will degrade by having links at the top, followed by the text. Your mileage may vary.

Strike Down

Sometimes, things just happen by chance. Pure luck, whether good or bad may be the only explanation that we can come up with. But every once in awhile, you have to wonder if there isn't divine intervention.

For example, three local hospitals are under going a strike by their nurses. The nurses, because of staffing shortages due to low pay, are forced to work mandatory overtime. Sometimes they work double shifts and they are fearful that mistakes, made due to exhaustion, will cost people their lives. So they are striking trying to get overtime reduced (And get medical coverage when they retire. Think of that, they are nurses and they get no medical coverage when they retire).

In the mean time, the hospitals are bringing in scab replacement nurses from the mainland. The recruiters (and the hospitals that are paying them) are spending all kinds of money to fly nurses in for free, pay for their housing in luxury Waikiki hotels, pay for their transportation to and from work, and pay to bring their families here for Christmas vacations.

I'm sure the nurses walking the picket lines appreciate all that money being spent on their replacements when the hospitals plead no money for what the nurses want.

But that's not what this story is about. This past Sunday, a 74-year-old man was enjoying the waters off of Waikiki beach. But something happened. He began to flail about waving his arms, splashing the water. Then he blacked out and began to sink below the blue waters.

But a woman on the beach ran to his rescue and brought him to shore. Only, the man was no longer breathing and the woman did not know CPR. But someone else on the beach did. Another woman. One who took a free trip to paradise to work - as a nurse. At one of the hospitals where nurses are on strike. She knew CPR and brought the man back to life. All because she was the right person, at the right place, at the right time.

Maybe that was pure luck, and maybe, it wasn't.

Aloha!

Short Shrift Mode

Things are busy around here while at the same time, I have to take off early today. So short shrift mode is in effect. Thank you to everyone who has emailed me regarding the second version of next years web pages. I still need to hear from people using browsers other than the latest IE 6.0, Mozilla 1.1, or Opera 6. So if you have one that is earlier than that, please check out the link here and let me know if you see anything other than a column on the left with a menu and a main column to its right with the sample text. MIA (mahalo in advance).

Fark Fest

Ever get the feeling your waiter was manipulating you to get a bigger tip? Well, guess what, he or she probably was. From the "How Stuff Works Site" comes the list here:

• Touching your shoulder

• Squatting next to the table when taking your order

• Giving candy with the bill

• Being extra helpful

Can you patent instant messaging? If you're AOL and you file such a request with the U.S. Patent Office you can (see the story from MSNBC here). I've said it here before and I guess I'll be saying it here again, patenting the Internet is counter productive. The Internet exists because of its open standards available to all. When you start carving out sections that you claim are your own, you begin the process of killing the very thing you are trying to possess.

I don't know who I am more angry at, AOL for filing such a request, or the Patent Office for apparently granting it (along with patents earlier granted to AOL for browser cookies and SSL).

Aloha!

The Engine That Couldn't

Organizations are undergoing unprecedented changes. Some of them, like Enron or United, hit the front pages. Others don't get as much ink. But I seem to see a trend in that even organizations that have stayed the same for generations are having to reinvent themselves. Sometimes almost overnight, relatively speaking.

Last summer I talked about the changes occurring the in the trust area of Hawaii's largest bank. This year our graduate student group is looking at pension funds. The common thread in both is nobody really paid attention to either.

Most people considered them to be like a reliable car engine. You put the key in the ignition with the expectation that it would start up, first time, every time. And for many years, these institutions quietly went about providing quality services that you didn't need to think about.

But even while they were doing this, their engines began to wear out. The piston rings began leaking. The carbon began to build up. But we didn't pay attention to the warning signs. Even when the dash warning lights began to glow, we figured the problem was in the sensors, not the engine itself.

Perhaps we didn't want to believe the warnings because it would mean we would have to make a hard choice. Something that might cost us a lot of money and time to fix. So we went on our merry way, hoping for best, and not preparing for anything, much less the worst.

For a time, this strategy of hopeful neglect worked. The engine still started, it still moved the car at a good, if not as swift pace, and so we were happy. But there came a day in which it finally just came to a stop in a steaming heap of glowing, rusted metal.

And so we find ourselves today having to pay for a whole new engine. Right now. Likewise, our institutions must deal with a rapidly changing environment. One full of dangers and hidden costs. But they, and we, must be up to the challenge. Because if we aren't, the old mechanics saying that you can pay me a little now, or you can ignore the problem and pay me lot later, will be proven true once again.

The End, is Near

Based on feedback from a couple of people, I've revised the 2003 template (see it here). The first change was to stop using the italics version of the courier font. At small sizes, the font looked rather ugly and hard to read. So, where possible, I've switched to another way of providing a visual clue (e.g., see the line referring to email).

The other is to resolve a difference between how IE and Mozilla deal with the <p> tag. For whatever reason, my html editor, HTML-Kit, surrounds text with that tag. Even when that text is not displayed. The offending code is below:

<p><a
id="last"
name="last"></a></p>

IE just ignored the <p> tag and did not insert the line feed and carriage return. However, both Mozilla and Opera did. Hence, there would be an extra space where there was none in IE. At least, that's as far as I could determine based on my deleting the offending tag. YMMV.

So, what you now see there is probably what you will get come my first post in January. Until then, if there are problems, and I am aware that IE 5.5 displays the menu that should be in the left column as if there was no column at all, let me know about it.

Aloha!

It's Friday!

Winding Down

Our graduate school group hopes to have our proposal for our final project done by 4:00 p.m. today. We worked on it last night via email but have more to go so I gotta go.

Fark Fest

Well, there you go again. The military has spent your tax dollars on another boondoggle. The C-464646, a specially modified C-130 transport plane will be used to interdict all foreign aircraft, except for one particular fast moving sleigh on December 24th. Surely they must realize that the C-130 is much, much too slow to act as an interceptor? Surely they must realize that the C-130 is not equipped for that kind of mission? Surely they would not spend that kind of money for one night?

And why call it the C-464646? Military officials are being very tight lipped about this. But this reporter has learned, from a generally reliable source, that the numbers are some kind of code that can only be read by finding the right letters on the keypad of your phone.

See the sordid story here.

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!

© 2002 Daniel K. Seto. All rights reserved. Disclaimer