You Have Spam. Silicon Valley columnist Dan Gillmor has set his sites on e-mail and finds it wanting (see it here). According to Gillmor, from spam to viruses, the vital role e-mail has served is rapidly coming to a close.

While there are solutions, the probability that any will be implemented is next to zero. The reasons for this are many. Some are economic. Some are social. All make easy solutions unlikely.

Hence, he seems to be abandoning e-mail as a failed experiment and is moving to instant messaging and RSS feads. I wish him luck because it is but a matter of time before both is co-opted by businesses just trying to make a buck.

Missed It By THAT Much. Hurricane Jimena brushed past the Big Island yesterday morning causing, thank God, only minimal damage. When you live on an island in the middle of the Pacific you take these threats seriously.

While I'm no weather forecaster, it appears there was a strong upper level high pressure region North of the islands that forced the hurricane South and eventually split the storm up into three cells. This avoided what could have been a Very Bad Thing - the direct impact of a Category 2 storm over a populated area. Had that occurred, power would have been out for months, thousands would have lost their homes, and many could have died.

Instead, surfers got a treat and farmers got some much needed rain.

Aloha!

I've never considered myself to have "Golden Ears." That is, people who say they can hear the difference between $30,000USD Class-A 10-watt audio amplifiers or who use green paint on the edges of music CDs because they say it keeps the laser light from bouncing through the edge and creating spurious signals or who place their CD players on top of granite slabs suspended on bladders so as to reduce the vibrations that "color" the music.

But I don't recall ever seeing one of these people do any double-blind tests and reliably pick which is which. They may be able to tell a difference between test subjects, but not which is which nor which is "better" (Deciding what is better would be a whole section of study. Indeed, I seem to recall a study that tested a system that was very flat across the spectrum versus one that had deliberate emphasis in the low and high ends. Guess which one was considered to be the better of the two by subjects? Yup, the non-linear one.).

So it was with great amusement I read a test report (see it here) on one-metre audio cables costing between $200 to $400 per cable. Yes, that's right. For what you or I would pay for a pretty good receiver, these people pay for a single audio cable.

Yes, the cable may be made of pure silver with gold plated tips. Yes, the cables are marked for direction (I didn't know wires needed to have the direction of flow labeled, figuring electrons would flow from the source regardless which end of the cable you used, much less causing a change in timbre because of it). Yes, they are sheathed in the finest designer woven jackets.

But again, where are the double-blind tests to determine if a statistically valid difference can be reliably perceived, and if so, what objective criteria are used to determine which is "better"?

If you are interested in audio equipment, take a look at this site here that lists links that debunk the "snake oil" audio claims that these high-end manufacturers make. The money you save may be your own.

Aloha!

The evening news last night was a twitter with the Aquada amphibious car (see the story here or the Flash enabled corporate site here). At a projected price of over $200,000USD, I don't think they'll be able to sell the projected 100 cars per year they say they will be building. But then, what do I know?

In any case, I'm sure it will show up in the next James Bond film with Q demonstrating how the hub caps conceal spinning knife blades and the head lights are actually lasers. But I think Miss Moneypenny will have problems demurely entering the vehicle since there are no doors so you have to climb over the side to get in.

But small quibbles aside, how fast will she go? About 100 mph on land and about 30 mph in the water according to the press reports. For $200,000 you would think it would hold the land speed record but I guess not.

The ice cream is in the refrigerator, but there is no joy in Hanapepe as word of the demise of Walter Lappert spread. Lappert's ice cream is world renown for its rich, creamy textures from 16 to 18 percent butterfat compared to the usual 10 percent in other brands. Lappert, who came to Kaua'i in the early 1980s to "retire", started an ice cream business to keep him busy.

Little did he know the business would grow to have stores not only on all of the main Hawaiian islands but also in California, Nevada, and Arizona. SWMBO and I were fortunate enough to have some of his ice cream this past July when we were staying at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki. There may be others that are as good, but there is none better.

We will miss him.

Aloha!

When you pass a law that is illogical it becomes difficult to enforce because there is very little, if any, legal infrastructure to do so. By that I mean well thought out case law or at least logical arguments to backup the intent of the law.

So, when such a law is passed, and judges and juries are required to interpret disputes between parties, what results is usually tortured logic, law, and frequently: injustice, or as one person put it, a legally correct conclusion but at the same time patently absurd and lacking in any common sense.

This should not be a surprise. It has happened in the past and it will happen in the future. It is the logical result of an illogical law.

Conversely, you can have judges who will come to illogical conclusions, having realized the law itself is illogical, and therefore try to create a new law, rather than interpret it, or better yet, invalidate it.

But it is instructive to dissect such instances so that we can learn from them and reduce their occurrences.

One of the most egregious examples of such illogical laws is the so called "Digital Millennium Copyright Act" (DMCA). It has resulted in rulings showing both of the above problems.

In Lexmark v. Static Control Components, Inc., laser printer manufacturer Lexmark sought injunctive relief from Static Control Components (SCC) alleging irreparable damage and loss of revenue due to copyright infringement under, inter alia, 17 U.S.C. § 101 et seq. and yes, the DMCA, 17 U.S.C. § 1201 et seq.

As an interesting side light, it is instructive to note that in the Lexmark complaint they reveal their business model is based on selling relatively low priced lasers (but not as low as their competition) but high priced toner cartridges and other supplies for their printers.

One line of Lexmark toner cartridges includes an embedded micro-chip with copyrighted code. The complaint notes the code is used by the printer to determine toner level and is read by the printer's copyrighted programming.

And here is the where the DMCA comes in, the code includes an "authentication sequence, to prevent unauthorized access to its Toner Loading Program and Printer Engine Programs." If the authentication does not occur, access to the cartridge is denied and the printer will not print. It should be noted that Lexmark produces another line of cartridges that does not require this authentication (at a higher price) and, in fact, third-party manufacturers are free to legally produce their own replacements for this non-authentication line as no micro-chips are included nor required.

Now comes SCC, a manufacturer of third-party toner cartridges, including a line designed to circumvent the authentication sequence of Lexmark's chip by including their own chip that mimics the other.

The judge, following the relevant laws, ruled in favor of Lexmark. The case is currently under appeal. See the relevant documents here.

I'm out of time for today. Hopefully, on Monday I will have the time to go through a case in which a judge sought to ignore the law.

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!

The second of two legal cases I started talking about last week is The Chamberlain Group, Inc., v. Skylink Technologies, Inc.

Chamberlain manufactures and sells remote controlled garage door openers (GDOs), including a line that uses what they term "rolling codes." Rolling code technology is described as a computer program that constantly changes the signal sequence that is needed to remotely open the garage door.

This changing of the sequence is marketed as a security feature since third-parties who record the sequence and try to replay it, at a later time, to gain unauthorized access to the garage, would be thwarted by the system using a different code every time it is used.

Comes now Skylink Technologies and what they call a universal remote control that bypasses the rolling code feature and opens the door without using such a code.

Chamberlain filed suit against Skylink under, inter alia, the DCMA contending that such bypassing violated the prohibition

because it illegally circumvents a protective measure (the rolling code) that controls access to its copyrighted computer program in Chamberlain's Security+ GDOs. Specifically, Chamberlain claims that Skylink has violated 17 U.S.C. § 1201(a)(2) of the DMCA, which states:

(2) No person shall manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide, or otherwise traffic in any technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof, that--
(A) is primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title;
(B) has only limited commercially significant purpose or use other than to circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title; or
(C) is marketed by that person or another acting in concert with that person with that person's knowledge for use in circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title.

Later in the opinion, the court states:

During oral arguments on this motion, Plaintiff acknowledged that under its interpretation of DMCA, a garage owner violates the Act if he or she loses the transmitter that came with its Chamberlain rolling code GDO, but manages to operate the opener by somehow circumventing the rolling code. This court agrees with Defendant that the DMCA does not require such a conclusion.

Here, the court appears to be trying to make a reasonable conclusion from an unreasonable law. That is, the law could not be construed to keep an owner from accessing his or her own garage. Even though, that is exactly what the plain language of the DCMA would require if it were to be enforced. While this certainly gives comfort to the defendant, it leaves intact the law itself. See the ruling, in PDF format here.

Living Large. Warren Zevon is not what one would describe as a role model. Unless you were looking for a rock and roll singer/composer from the Me Generation of the 1970s and 80s.

In a time of excess, Zevon and fellow traveler/author Hunter S. Thompson crossed the boundary of the known and struck out on their own brand of horror - one based on doing all the things your parents told you not to do.

In the end, such living caught up with Zevon, as it will for all of us. Warren Zevon, dead at the age of 56.

I saw a werewolf drinking a pina colada at Trader Vic's
His hair was perfect
Werewolves of London
Draw blood.

Fading Memories. Photographs document the times of our lives. But nothing lasts forever, as the images and our memories fade. And one day recently, SWMBO noticed that we had pictures of her late dad on the bookcase but none of mine.

Part of that is because my father passed away over 30 years ago and part of that is I didn't take any pictures with me when I moved out of my mother's house. So I went to see what I could find. What I found were a few images in faded color and few more in black and white.

Not wanting to display pictures in such bad shape, I decided to check out what was available as far as programs designed to restore and retouch images. For anyone on a budget, the choices narrowed down to Adobe Photoshop Elements and Jasc Photo Paint Shop 8. Both list for about $100 USD and both are designed for the non-artist who needs to do simple, and not so simple image manipulation.

Either will probably do what most people need to do but I chose Jasc because of political reasons more than anything else. Don't get me wrong, Adobe makes useful software, but I don't like some of their business tactics and so went with Jasc.

As it so happened, Doc Searl's mother passed away recently and Doc created a memorial in photographs (see it here). Some of the images, however, had faded or were scanned in such a way as to reduce the contrast and color saturation. So I decided to use Paint Shop Pro 8 on what looked like the most worn out images as a test. Before you click on the following link, be aware that you need a broadband connection because some of the images are large and will take a long time to download. The results can be seen here.

Most of the improvements you see are a credit to Paint Shop Pro and not any skill I may have. All I did on most of the images was tweak things a little here and there. However, two of the four did require a fair amount of manual work (see "1980" and "mom_flapper").

I think Paint Shop Pro does a great job of restoring the original contrast and color tones and is well worth the cost if you need to restore old photographs.

Aloha!

Life is but an illusion. Go to this page here to see some unreal optical illusions. The page is kind of big and the bits are coming from Japan so be patient and all will be revealed. Although, not all of the illusions work for me, the first "Rotating Snakes" is pretty cool.

Otter: I think this situation absolutely requires that a really futile, stupid gesture be done on somebody's part!
Bluto: And we're just the guys to do it.

The above quote has nothing to do with anything other than I was over at Amazon.com getting something for SWMBO (shh, it's a secret) when I accidentally added the item to my wish list instead of the shopping cart. I did not realize this until I went to checkout and couldn't find one of the items I thought I had ordered.

By applying my superior powers of intellect (i.e., pure luck - ed.) I deduced what I had done and deleted the item from aforementioned wish list. Unfortunately, I didn't want to have a wish list account but I guess the fact I had added the item to it will forever more mean I have one. No, there's nothing in it nor will you find any other information there.

But this got me to thinking (a novel experience, to be sure - ed.) and I decided to checkout what the other Daynoters may have on their lists.

John Doucette's name came up for five lists but none were in Canada. I bet John didn't know there were so many of him running around.

Chris Ward-Johnson, of St Felix de Pallieres, France wants a copy of "Desserts from Your Bread Machine: Perfect Every Time: Cakes, Cookies, Pastries, Doughnuts, Sticky Buns, and Other Recipes You Never Thought You Could." Yup, I'd guess that'd be our Good Doctor K. Although I wonder where he's been since he hasn't posted for awhile.

Brian Bilbrey's name came up once but was listed in Kentucky. I don't think our Brian has moved that far south but who knows? If so, someone should tell Sally before she starts wondering what happened to her human tennis ball chaser.

Steve Tucker must be a popular name because 25 of them have wish lists. I don't know if any of these are Daynoter Steve's though.

One Dan Bowman of Modesto, California is wishing for "Embracing the Fear: Learning to Manage Anxiety and Panic Attacks". Things must be a bit tense over in the Central Valley.

Ben Ator has a passel of paperbacks too many to list.

There are four Moshe Bar's out there wishing you would buy them stuff and four Frank McPherson's.

There are three John Dominik lists, two of which are located in Minneapolis, MN. Each of the two in Minnesota (The Cadillac Engine State) have geek enriched stuff like "Teach Yourself MS SQL Server 2000 in 21 Days" and "Mac OS 9: The Missing Manual" so this indeed could be our man in Minnesota, don'tcha think?

The thing about wish lists though, if people don't know you have one, they probably won't buy anything from it. In addition, some of the lists are quite old, and if anyone actually wants any of the stuff on their list, they should update it.

Correction to yesterday's post. I have to plead massive stupidity for calling Jasc Paint Shop Pro, Photo Shop instead. I don't know why I did that, other than as a test for reader Jon Barrett (which he passed with flying colors). In addition, Aussie Don Armstrong (G'day mate) reminded me of another program that I should have considered: IrfanView. I'll try to take a quick look at it when I find the time but what I like about Paint Shop Pro is its one button "Enhance Photo" that runs a macro script which automagically adjusts the color balance, contrast, saturation, smoothes, sharpens, and clarifies the image. All I had to do was some minor adjustments here and there. This saved me a lot of time. Speaking of which, I'm out of time so I gotta go.

Aloha!

Not much going on over in the Seto Shack. As an update to the never ending list of domestic things to do: I finished painting the interior of the front house and am now working on cleaning it from top to bottom. I hope to be able to get it rented in about a month or two. In our back house, where we live, the bathroom upstairs is still waiting for the plumber to schedule work on replacing the leaking shower. It won't get scheduled for at least a couple more weeks and in the mean time, we will have to use the shower in the front house since the shower downstairs is also acting up.

As the number of pages on our intranet site at work has increased, an easy way of getting to pages became critical to its use. We decided to attack the problem with three different tools. The first was to create a "Yahoo" style index page that listed the various major categories of what the web site has. By doing this, you can get to where you want in one to at the most three clicks. The second tool was to create an index, like you have in the back of a book. Using the index will get you to any page in no more than two clicks, and for the most part, in one click. The last tool was to create a site map.

While the person who created the index was willing to code and maintain it by hand, I wanted to find something easier for the site map. I first tried to find an open source solution but whatever I found seemed to be keyed to running on *nix and Perl/Python. Being that our server runs Windows and IIS, all would not work without substantial editing. By the way, if someone says you can convert a non-trivial Perl program written for Unix to Windows with minimal changes, run as fast as you can away from this person because they are clearly mentally ill and don't know what they are talking about and have never actually done what they say can be easily done. This is especially true when it comes to dealing with how the two operating systems represent drives, directories, and even forward or back slashes. They are just not compatible and I've never seen anyone come up with a How-To that lists all the differences and how to program around them.

Being that as it may, I ended up buying a rather expensive program, for what it does, called SiteXpert (see it here). It costs $65USD and runs on Windows. You can point it at a page and it will spider the links on the page creating a site map with very little work on your part. Note this is different from a program that just lists the HTML pages linked to another. SiteXpert will follow all links and display said links in a hierarchical display. This is critical to us because we have pages that have links to Adobe PDF files. We want these files listed on the site map. Yet most site map programs ignore links to all binary files such as, but not limited to, pdfs and doc files. Why that is so I don't know but it appears to be almost universal.

So, if you need a Windows program that spiders all types of links, this may be the one for you.

Aloha!

MacGyver would be proud of Daryl Seaton. It seems Seaton and his wife were caught in a early season snow storm in Colorado. Stranded for two days in their SUV, they waited for help. While he had a cell phone, the battery was dead, and so would he if they didn't get word to authorities. So he took the battery from his camera and a band aid and made the call that brought the helicopter to their rescue.

Back in the day of VDTs, where monitors didn't display any graphics, much less ultra wide XVGA in 16 million colors, there was ASCII art (and yes, there was p0rn even back then). Check out this site here that goes one step farther: ASCII movies. Note that they require Javascript to be enabled.

Wallpaper for the Week. The Hubble telescope does it again in this series of images of Saturn. Taken in March and April of this year, the images show Saturn's rings at their maximum tilt of 27 degrees. The maximum occurs approximately once every 30 years and gives astronomers the best view of the planet's southern pole.

The images were taken in visible, ultraviolet, and infrared light to allow researchers the opportunity to study different characteristics of Saturn's atmosphere.

Read the full story here.

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!

I went over to Wil Wheaton dot net and saw a Flash based tribute he put up on September 11th. I got to wondering how to create a Flash file so I went over to the Macromedia site to take a look.

Unfortunately, the cost of the software ( $499USD) is prohibitive to all but people who make a living at doing this. So, of course, I looked for alternatives. While I could not find an Open Source program, I did find something that was substantially cheaper.

It's called SWiSHmax (before you ask, no, I don't know what it's supposed to mean. But you have to wonder...) and costs $79.95. I have no idea if it has the full functionality of the Macromedia original but it can do some interesting things.

I created a text only Flash program that is only 8KB in size. Feel free to follow the link here if you want to see it. Of course, you will have to have the free Flash viewer plug-in already loaded otherwise you won't see much.

In addition, I'm not sure how to display the file using standards compliant HTML so I am using what Wheaton used. If I can figure out how to code it without using the deprecated <embed> tag I'll re-do it.

Speaking of Streaming Media, here's IP over water. As in using water as a medium to transmit information between computers (follow the link here).

H2O/IP functions in a similar way as TCP/IP but focuses on the inherent viscous properties of water that are not present in traditional packet networks. The StreamingMedia demonstration of H2O/IP is as an installation of two computers at different heights where one captures an image and transmits it to the second computer in the form of modulated water drops. The project attempts to show how digital information can be encoded and decoded into organic forms to create a physical network between digital devices.

I'm out of time so I gotta go.

Aloha!

I'm really short on time today so maybe I shouldn't bring this subject up until I have to the time to run down some links. But I wanted to say that I'm becoming convinced that the government's response to the attacks on September 11 (e.g., "Patriot Act") were a cover to implement changes to our society that they wanted to make but couldn't figure out how to do without the equivalent of another "Pearl Harbor."

That is, the changes the administration in Washington wanted to make were so anti-liberty/anti-Constitution that even they knew the changes would never be enacted unless there was an event of such national proportions that people would give up their liberty to gain a little illusory safety.

For example, within six months of passage of the Act, prosecutors began to switch from targeting al-Qaida terrorists to US citizens suspected of being smugglers, con artists, or drug dealers.

In the case of drug labs, people are being charged with creating chemical/biological weapons of mass destruction.

Within six months of passing the Act, the US Justice Department urged prosecutors to use the Act not against bin Laden, but to use wiretaps against ordinary US citizens which they suspect of wrong doing. To use the Act to seize private assets of US citizens without due process of law. To use the Act to access private financial dealings of US citizens that have absolutely no connection to terrorism at the whim of prosecutors without any checks and balances.

It is becoming clear that these changes were planned years before the attacks of September 11th and were always targeted at US citizens, not foreign terrorists. That is, they felt it was time for a change and this is what 49 percent of the voters had elected them to do. For too long criminals were given rights. That the pendulum had swung too far to the left and it was time for some good old right-wing goon squads to deliver justice swiftly, if not Constitutionally.

Further, it is becoming clear that these are examples of misguided, and no doubt righteously frustrated officials feeling that the ends justify the means. That safety is always more important than liberty. That only Big Brother knows what is best for their ignorant subjects. And most tragically, that anyone who opposes Big Brother is by definition subversive and must be immediately imprisoned without a hearing before an impartial judge or, heaven forbid, a jury of his or her peers.

See one chilling round-up of governmental abuses of the Act here.

If you don't think any of this can happen to you, remember this:

• Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government purposes are beneficent...The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning, but without understanding. -- Justice Louis Brandeis

• In Germany, the Nazis first came for the communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak for me. -- Rev. Martin Niemoeller, German Lutheran pastor arrested by the Gestapo in 1938. He was sent to the concentration camp at Dachau, where he remained until he was freed by the Allied forces in 1945.

Aloha!

I'm at home while the plumbers/carpenters work on replacing the upstairs shower so there will not be any updates for today.

Aloha!

I'm at home again today and will be so tomorrow and Monday. Sigh. While the plumbers and tile guy did show up yesterday, they are AWOL this morning. One just called to say they will be here this afternoon. No word yet from the others.

I also noticed that these plumbers all seem to be interconnected or at least farm out work to others when they are busy. I've had two calls from the original plumbing contractor but neither shows up on caller ID with that name. In addition, guys arrive in vans with names on the side that are not the name of the contrator we are supposedly dealing with.

This makes it very difficult to keep track of who is doing what and, should the need arise, who to go after.

Oh well, what's a person to do?

Aloha!

I'm at home waiting for the tile guy to show up. I wonder if he won't and I'm afraid he will.

Here's why. When the old tub/shower was removed and the new one installed, a gap appeared between the where the floor tile ended and the new tub began. It's about a strip two or three inches wide and runs the width of the bathroom.

So I asked the tile guy yesterday about this and was not encouraged by his answer. He would be willing to re-tile the whole floor for us without, of course, telling the general contractor about it as long as we paid him (the tile guy) cash.

First, you have to remember that the floor was re-tiled around November of last year when we did the house renovations. So I don't take it kindly when someone offers to re-do the entire floor as a "favor" to us.

Secondly, what kind of workman tries to cheat his employer out of money? Let me give you a hint, a person that you don't want in your house doing any kind of work, much less tiling the entire floor.

So it's almost 9:00am HST and no one is here. In a few minutes I will be calling the general contrator and asking him where his tile buy his and when will this supposed three-day project actually going to end. Sigh.

I get the feeling this won't be done for at least a couple of weeks and may require the filing of a law suit. Big sigh.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, asked VeriSign to "voluntarily suspend the service and participate in the various review processes now underway." The "service" in question is the redirection of requests to domains that do not exist to VeriSign's own servers.

Said servers give you other possible spellings for the domain you were looking for as well as links by categories. There is also a "Search the Web" box.

The polite response from VeriSign was to say they will continue to do what they want but are willing to take a meeting to discuss things. The English translation of VeriSign's corporate speak is "Bugger off."

Note the privacy policy of the page states:

We use third-party companies to serve paid and unpaid search results and other content to our Site Finder. In the course of serving these results, these companies may place or recognize a cookie on your browser, and may use information (not including your name, address, e-mail address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other web sites in order to serve content to our site, improve the services offered on our site, or measure advertising effectiveness of paid search results. For more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having your information used by these companies, please visit http://www.content.overture.com/d/Usm/about/company/privacypolicy.jhtml.

See the ICAAN site here for the request and VeriSign's response.

The Power of 1,000 Monkeys. Over at Virginia Tech, they're creating a 1,100 PowerMac G5 cluster "super computer." I'm not sure using Apple computers is the most cost efficient way of doing it but I guess they think so. Take a look at the site here.

Speaking of Monkeys. Our IT folks switched over to Netware 6.x while I was on vacation (without letting me know, of course). Unfortunately, this broke the MS Client Service for Netware that we had been using since the MS client was faster and more stable than the Netware offering (Yes, I know, hard to believe but I think this reflects how bad the Netware client is more than how good the MS one is).

I searched the MS website to see if there was anything on this. But, in doing a search on "Netware 6" or "Netware 6.x" it did not bring up any Knowledge Base articles at all. Strange. Surely there must be something, unless our IT people are doing something to lock out all clients except the Novell one so that they can "manage" our PCs.

If so, with due respect to our fine IT folks, we do not want, nor do we need them to manage our PCs. We do very well without their "support". We had anti-virus software and firewalls running on our PCs years before IT got around to even thinking about such things. We were running MS Office years before IT got around to recommending it over WordPerfect. We began running Windows 2000/XP years before our IT had a copy to try out. We advocated for joining the 20th century, before the 21st was over, by installing Ethernet instead of the over-priced, proprietary, and difficult to get IBM Token-Ring NICs.

In other words, we don't need no steekin' IT office miles away to tell us how to best do our work when they are so behind the times that they think IBM/Lotus Notes is a cost effective way to get e-mail.

To our IT, change is something you get when you buy something with cash. Otherwise, change is something to be avoided. And if you can't avoid it, contract a vendor to institute the change because they (IT) don't have the expertise to implement nor manage it.

If you ask me, doing business this way will lead to the logical conclusion of contracting out all of IT since they can't do anything useful now. Except maybe "manage" PCs.

Aloha!

Filtering spam probably will never be 100 percent effective. Why? Because it is possible to create an e-mail that does not use any of the standard spam techniques but still get its message across.

For example, I got one last week that scored 0.0 in SpamAssasin. That is, as far as SpamAssasin could determine, there was nothing to indicate it was spam.

Even the text seemed to say that the sender had found a broken link to their site on one of my pages and would I like trade links with them by just clicking on the handy HTML link at the top of the e-mail?

Of course, I had no such link to their site and clicking on their handy button would just confirm that they had reached a live e-mail account that they could then sell to other spammers.

So, what to do? I don't know. All I can say is the most effective deterrent would be one based on economics. That is, one that makes it cost more to send spam than the income they get back from it.

When someone figures how to efficiently do that, they will be crowned king of the world.

Opera 7.2 is Gold. The latest version of the Opera browser went out the door recently (get it here). While I seem to be using Mozilla Firebird as my browser of choice right now, Opera still has it uses. For example, when I think I need a hardened, bullet-proof browser to wade into enemy territory, it's Opera I turn to lock and load (mixing metaphors). Yes, Firebird may be faster, but how secure is something that hasn't even reached the 1.0 release yet? Especially one that specifically states it should not be used for mission critical tasks!

So when the going gets tough, get Opera.

To the Moon. Speaking of going places, the European Space Agency is set to launch their first probe to the moon. The SMART-1 (Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology) propulsion system includes a main ion-drive engine powered from a solar cell array. See the story here.

One Correction from yesterday's post on the Apple array. I did not realize that Virginia Tech was looking only at 64-bit processors (Thanks to Ken Scott for the information). As such, the cost of the G5 is probably (although I have not checked this) lower than the alternatives they looked at.

Of course, as Sjon pointed out to me, they could have also looked at AMD. In addition, as I understand it, the point of a massively parallel array is to use the power of as many nodes as possible. Regardless of whether they are 64 or 32-bits.

For example the Maui High Performance Center Linux SuperCluster uses 260 nodes with a pair of Pentium IIIs per node. At the time of its power-up, this cluster was the worlds most powerful array there was and, for all I know, still is.

It seems to me that if you spent less money on getting 64-bit processors and instead got a bunch more of cheaper 32-bit ones you would reach a point of higher total power. On the other hand, what do I know? I could be wrong and Apple will reign supreme in the 64-bit super computer world. Not.

Aloha!

See this article here from Joel on Software on his version of the perfect office design.

Most software managers know what good office space would be like, and they know they don't have it, and can't have it. Office space seems to be the one thing that nobody can get right and nobody can do anything about. There's a ten year lease, and whenever the company moves the last person anybody asks about how to design the space is the manager of the software team, who finds out what his new veal-fattening pens, uh, cubicle farm is going to be like for the first time on the Monday after the move-in.

Well, it's my own damn company and I can do something about it, so I did.

Speaking of Design. The difference between a professional craftsman or woman and someone who thinks they are, but is not, is in the details. I have learned this both from our renovations of last year and from the recent bathroom repairs.

A professional, like a doctor, seeks to do no harm. That is, he or she protects the existing structure from any damage caused by their doing their work. For example, the first thing Bret Hill Construction folks did last year was lay down protective plastic on the floors and created a contained plastic lined wall surrounding the area they were currently working. On the counter tops, they laid down veneer board to protect the surfaces from damage.

Contrast this with the plumbers and tile guy from Creative Plumbing who did nothing to protect the floors and walls from damage. Thus, it is not surprising that we will need to paint the walls and scrub our less than one year old floors to correct the damage they caused. In addition, the tile guy gouged the brand new tub in two places. Even worse, he dumped his left over grout down our toilet, but did not flush it. Hence, the grout began to harden. If we hadn't noticed what he had done, the toilet could very well have been ruined.

As it is, I'm not sure how much of the grout went down into our sewer pipes and are even now clogging things up.

Secondly, a professional expects the unexpected. Anyone who has worked on existing structures knows that, over time, houses settle on their foundations. This means walls and floors are no longer even. So you have to expect to work a little harder to get things back to being plumb and true. This is to be expected and planned for. On the other hand, the tile guy swore up a storm when he found the wall studs a little out of kilter.

Which leads me to my last indicator. A professional respects the owners of the house as they, if for no other reason, are the people paying his salary. So, swearing like a sailor on shore leave after six months at sea is not professional conduct. Tracking dirt, gravel, and water into the house and on our wall-to-wall carpets does not reflect professionalism. Not having a project manager to check on the work of your sub-contractors is not professional because you will not know how well they do their job until you are served with the legal papers bringing suit against you. And finally, having a plumber drop off the bill before all of the work is completed does not engender trust as it appears you are interested more in money than ensuring the work is completed in a proper manner (which is probably the truth).

It is not difficult to see who are the professionals and who are not. The problem is, you can't tell the difference until after they start work. Sigh.

Aloha!

The spammers have finally figured out how to send their drek through the comments section of MovableType. Hence, I have reluctantly decided to close all comments (as soon as I figure out how) so my system won't be overwhelmed under an avalanche of their bovine excrement.

If MovableType can figure out a way of filtering spam so it never gets posted in the first place I will re-open the comments. But I reckon that will not be possible.

You can continue to contact me via e-mail (see the "Links" section on the right) as usual.

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!

Another of the downsides of living on an island in the middle of the ocean is the vulnerability to tsunami. Tsunami (pronounced sue-nah-me), from the Japanese tsu for harbor and nami for wave, are the waves generated by "earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruptions, explosions, and even the impact of cosmic bodies, such as meteorites..." Note that some in the west sometimes substitute the phrase "tidal wave" for tsunami but unless the waves were caused by the tides, this is incorrect.

Hawai'i was under a tsunami watch last week Thursday due to a magnitude 8.0 (on the Moment scale, 7.9 on the Richter - see this site here that explains the different scales) earthquake near Japan. The earthquake, centered near the island of Hokkaido, caused one death and 388 injuries (see this article here for more details).

It also created a small (3ft/0.9m) tsunami that did only local damage.

However, there have been tsunami that have killed hundreds (see the list here) including 146 on April 1, 1946 on the Big Island of Hawai'i and 61 in 1960, also on the Big Island.

Tsunami are more common that most people realize. During the period from 1900 to 2001, there were almost 800 tsunami observed or recorded in the Pacific region. Of these, over 100 caused casualties and damage near the source and nine caused widespread damage throughout the Pacific. Without exception, during every year of this period, at least one tsunami was generated.

So when the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center cranks into action (see it here), we listen.

10:09 HST The center issues the first of what will be four bulletins. Bulletin 001 is an advisory that indicates a magnitude 8.1 earthquake occurred near Japan 19 minutes earlier. In the rush to get information out to the Civil Defense authorities, an incorrect estimated time of arrival (ETA) of 6:01pm ( HST) is given. In the open ocean, tsunami travel at about 500 mph (805km/hr). An ETA of 6:00pm would give us about eight hours to evacuate thousands of people living near the shore.

Based on this bulletin, all court administrators were notified of the possible arrival and perhaps the need to execute pre-arranged emergency evacuation plans.

10:27 HST Bulletin 002 corrects the ETA to 5:01pm HST. If a Pacific-wide tsunami was generated, we now have six-and-a-half hours to evacuate all near shore areas. Instituting such an evacuation is not taken lightly as the last time it was done, traffic grid lock occurred. Hence, authorities wait for confirmation of a tsunami approaching before issuing such an order. Unfortunately, as noted above, the longer you wait the less time you have to try to get people out of harms way.

11:11 HST The third bulletin raises the level of alert from an "advisory" to a "watch" as "BASED ON ALL AVAILABLE DATA A TSUNAMI MAY HAVE BEEN GENERATED BY THIS EARTHQUAKE THAT COULD BE DESTRUCTIVE ON COASTAL AREAS EVEN FAR FROM THE EPICENTER." The next step after watch (which is instituted after all 7.5 magnitude earthquakes) is warning. A warning means a tsunami has been generated and may impact an area within the hour.

12:14 HST The final bulletin canceled the watch as "THERE IS NO DESTRUCTIVE TSUNAMI THREAT TO THE STATE OF HAWAII." Had there been such a threat, authorities would have had four hours and forty-five minutes to get every man, woman, and child near the shore of every island to higher ground. Part of the evacuation plans for O'ahu County is the use of the public bus system. Unfortunately, said bus system was on strike at the time. Even if all of the bus drivers and mechanics had been able to get to their buses, many of the vehicles would not have been usable due to dead batteries or flat tires.

There are many lessons to be learned. The main one is we need to be able to move thousands of people out of the way in a relatively short period of time. How to do that remains unresolved. However, if we don't come up with a solution, hundreds more may die one day as it is a matter of when, not if, a Pacific-wide tsunami will come our way.

For more information on tsunami check out these sites here or here.

Aloha!

The rememberences of Walter Ozawa, Deputy Administrator, The Judiciary, State of Hawai'i:

On the evening of December 7, 1941, my father was arrested in the little plantation camp of Wahiawa, Kauai. He was separated from his wife and their family of three sons and one daughter. Later, in 1942, my mother and her children were moved to Oahu and then shortly thereafter transported to Jerome, Arkansas. Then, as the war gradually came to an end, my mother and her family were moved to Tule Lake in California. Eventually, in 1945, the family was able to return to Hawai`i.

In 1989, President George Bush signed a bill authorizing payments to be paid out for a period of eight years. Along with the monetary compensation, surviving internees were also sent a letter of apology.

My mother received such a letter. Because she still primarily speaks Japanese, I sat her down, along with my wife and our youngest son at her side, and translated the letter into Japanese:

A monetary sum and words alone cannot restore lost years or erase painful memories; neither can they fully convey our Nation's resolve to recitify injustice and to uphold the rights of wrongs of the past. But we can take a clear stand for justice and recognize that serious injustices were done to Japanese Americans during World War II.

In enacting a law calling for restitution and offering a sincere apology, your fellow Americans have, in a real sense, renewed their traditional commitment to the ideals of freedom, equality, and justice. You and your family have our best wishes for the future.

Sincerely,

George Bush

As I read the letter, my mother sat quietly, hands folded in her lap, and silently cried, tears falling from her face and onto her hands. When I finished, she sat quietly for a long while, and I was worried that the letter had brought back bitter memories of pain and fear. Then, she spoke in a small voice, "Yappari...Yappari...after all, America is a great country. That the most powerful country and the most powerful person would write such a letter to a nobody like me. This is a great country after all..."

And so, my dear friends, thank you, for you honor her, and our nation, by helping Americans to remember what America should be, and can be. The Nisei Project touched many people in many ways. You now know how you touched me.

See one article here and the Nisei Project site here.

Aloha!