Misc. Ramblings

Kind of a slow day in the Seto Shack so I'll leave you with this site that has data map visualizations of various kinds.

By that I mean various people have mapped data onto a globe. Some of what I think are the more visually interesting examples are below. Be forewarned that it is a graphic intensive site and probably requires a broadband connection.

Light output.

Death penalty nations/states.

Telecommunications capacity.

Aloha!

And then there's this from Yahoo! News UK/Ireland:

Cracks are appearing in the UK thong market with sales down nearly 20% in the past year. Ever since the buttock-baring item of women's underwear was worn by a catwalk model in 1997, G-strings have been all the rage. Today sales of thongs remain firm among women aged 25 and under.

But demand from older women has started to sag, new figures show.

Between May 2004 and May this year G-string/thong sales dropped 17% nationally, according market researchers TNS Fashion Trak.

Their figures show that more discreet, 'shorts-style' knickers are becoming more popular.

But despite its recent dip in form, the thong, which remains a must-have 'chav' fashion accessory, is far from a thing of the past.

They still account for £38m of the £165m women's underwear industry.

Rachel Argyle, from TNS, said: "The bottom has not completely dropped out of the thong market, not yet.

"There is still a future for the thong. There is just a wider range of more comfortable alternatives out there."

Aloha!

The weather report for Hell is freezing rain with the possibility of snow. This, after Apple announced a two button mouse.

The new mouse includes a "Scroll Ball" so you can scroll up and down as well as side-to-side on large web pages. It also includes "capacitive sensors" that act as additional buttons so you can right or left tap the mouse.

Among other things, you can:

* Program the Scroll Ball button to launch Application Switcher, then move from one task to another with a scroll.
* Set any button to start a new Spotlight search and find what you're looking for, fast.
* Change the side buttons from displaying all windows in Exposé to displaying only the windows in the current application.
* Launch any application you choose from any button on Mighty Mouse: Just select "other" from the button drop-down menu and browse for applications in the Finder.
* Designate either top-shell button as your primary - the perfect solution for southpaws.

In other news, the band called the Eagles are touring again.

I love astronomy images. I don't know why, but I do. You may have guessed as much given the number of times I've highlighted such images as my wallpaper for the week.

Well, here come another!

This one is of M8, also known as the Lagoon Nebula. The original is from NASA and can be found here. Enjoy.

Aloha!

The Plame CIA "outing" debacle gets more and more interesting [everyone else in the world who has a life can just skip on down to the next item - ed.]. It seems that conservative columnist Robert Novak has a new column in which he makes certain claims.

First, he asserts that he is "a veteran of 48 years in Washington." Assuming this is true, one presumes he is saying he is wise in the ways of Washington and is, therefore, an expert rather than a journalistic dilettante.

If we accept this at face value then, I believe, it is fair to judge him in that light.

Novak goes on to say that one CIA source told Post reporters that he (the CIA source) "had 'warned' me [Novak] that if I 'did write about it her name should not be revealed.'" Novak does not dispute this report but says it's nonsense to not reveal the agent's name because anyone could just look in Who's Who and get the name. Novak is silent as to whether quoting Who's Who would reveal that Plame was an undercover agent. As noted before, revealing the name of a CIA secret agent is a federal offense because it endangers the security of the United States, the agent, and any operatives the agent may have worked with. This is especially true in time of war which, President Bush and other Republicans love to remind us, we are constantly in.

As a sidebar, it is exceedingly curious that no charges have been leveled against Novak, yet. One hates to speculate as to why, since most of the obvious reasons are so unseemly. But lets think about this for a minute and list some of the possibilities. One, the man didn't do anything illegal. Two, he did something illegal but he cut a deal with prosecutors in an attempt to save himself and point the blame at someone else. Three, he did something illegal and certain people in the Justice Department are doing their best to look the other way. Four, he did something illegal and will be indicted.

Getting back to his column, Novak says he was told by the CIA source that if Novak revealed her name, "she [Plame, the undercover agent] probably never again would be given a foreign assignment but that exposure of her name might cause 'difficulties.'" In the world of reading between the lines, using the word "difficulties", in relation to an undercover agent, is a red flag to anyone who has any understanding of nuanced communications. If, in fact, Novak was an experience Washington hand, he should have realized that he was being warned not to reveal undercover agent Plame's name because of national security concerns.

Instead, Novak says "I never would have written those sentences [outing Plame] if Harlow, then-CIA Director George Tenet or anybody else from the agency had told me that Valerie Plame Wilson's disclosure would endanger herself or anybody." Funny how a self-described experienced reporter like Novak now conveniently seems blind to the, I believe, clear warning he received.

I am not a lawyer or a judge (insert disclaimer here]. So, I leave it up to you to decide what is happening here. But what seems clear to me is that either Novak is not the experienced reporter he asserts he is, or he is making what appears to me some very questionable and potentially legally actionable statements.

EWeek did a review of Novell's SuSE 9.3 Pro recently:

Nat Friedman, vice president of Linux desktop engineering at Novell, said, "We are getting ahead of Windows for the first time."

After kicking SLP 9.3's tires, I agree. This is one impressive desktop distribution. It has every Linux application that anyone is ever likely to want and it's all tied together with either a slick and up-to-date KDE or GNOME interface.

It is not, however, for everyone and it also has its fair share of teething problems in its most advanced programs.

Rather colorful prose to agree, on one hand, that this distribution is ahead of Windows but then say in the next paragraph that "it has its fair share of teething problems." While Windows may have lots of other problems, teething is not, in my opinion, one of them.

I've ordered a copy of SuSE 9.3 Pro from Novell so I'll let you folks know what I think once I receive and install it. But I get the feeling that this distribution, as with all the others I've tried over the years (from Caldera 2.x to Xandros 3.x) will fall somewhat short of Windows when it comes to application stability and upgrade ability.

Yes, there are thousands of utilities and a few applications for Linux but many, if not most, seem to be barely above alphaware [feverishly pulling on flame-proof overalls and Apple Reality Distortion Field(tm)]. By that I mean many Linux programs routinely crash or cause file corruption. In addition, many Linux programs seem to routinely lack the mature feature set that most Windows programs have by now.

Then we come to the fetid, dead horse called dependencies hell [talk about colorful prose -ed.] that makes updating many Linux applications, even in apt-get type systems, problematic. Sometimes, you just can't get there from here. Conversely, woe be unto the person who uninstalls a library and helplessly watches as apt-get merrily uninstalls every program that uses the library without so much as single confirmation. Then, to add insult to injury, taunts you when it lists the broken packages [Not that I've ever been in this situation...].

To use an automotive industry metaphor, cars became much more popular when, among other things, they became sophisticated and reliable enough that you no longer needed to understand how they ran to efficiently use one. That is, all you need to do is start the car and drive. You don't need to know how the automatic transmission operates nor how the engine translates up and down motion to forward movement. With a replacement interval of up to 100,000 miles, you don't even need to know how to change the spark plugs. It just runs.

When Linux get's to a point in which it just runs, without having to know arcane Unix-era commands to install, upgrade, or maintain, that will be the day that Linux finally gets ahead of Windows. I can't wait.

Some constructive comments came in regarding SuSE Pro 9.3. One of them is below. I am always pleased by such comments when I compare them to some of the really negative things others seem to get. I am hopeful that such good comments will continue. Thank you to David, Buddy, Sjon, and everyone else who has helped to move the conversation forward.

I think perhaps most of your dependency problems come from the distro you've chosen to use.

I've been a devoted Kanotix user for over a year now, and every package I've installed via apt-get / Synaptic has been successful. Even updates happen flawlessly for me, including KDE related updates.

This wasn't always the case (when I used distros like Mepis, Mandriva, Red Hat). The thing that makes Kanotix different is that it's pure Debian SID and strives to remain so. This seems to give it unequalled stability, at least from what I've experienced. However, I'm not a "hacker." I just use my PC for the "regular" every-day stuff. Learning how everything works is interesting, but much of it is beyond my understanding.

I used to have to worry about libraries with Mandriva... hence why I didn't keep it around for very long. It was something I just couldn't get my head around on how to manage that stuff.

I've even purchased boxed games for Linux and simply had to execute the install.sh script. Five minutes later, I'm playing my games.

I don't install anything from source. If there's an obscure application not in the Kanotix repository, or requires me to manually find libraries and such I avoid it. But, again, I consider myself a pretty run of the mill sort of computer user (as my wife) so it's rare for me not to find what I'm looking for in Synaptic.

Another nice thing about Kanotix is it's support of Klik (http://klik.atekon.de/). I'll admit, it's not a 100% bullet proof system yet, but it's getting there.

Basically, one click on an icon or application link and Kanotix installs the package directly to your desktop. This even works in LiveCD mode. Very innovative and will be something to watch.

I feel just like you about just making it work. I use MS-Windows XP at the office, and I really think that not even XP is there. But between working at home and at the office, I find my Linux box is just so much easier to use, maintain, and to make it do what I want it to do.

I've learnt so much. And not out of desperation to get the system to work. But learning what all I can do with it. I remember hours upon hours of troubleshooting with MS-Windows. It frustrated me when the only suggestion I could get to fix a problem was to do a re-install.

Anyway, it was great conversing with you. I hope your experiences with Linux turn out to be as liberating as mine.

Check out Kanotix, though. For a system that "just works", it's the closest I've found so far.

If you do try it, let me know, or post on your blog. I'd be glad to read about your findings.

Keep in mind, if you do decide to install it from the Live CD to your hard drive, you will have to type one command in the command line window. But, at least it's only one. We (the Kanotix user group) have been trying to get Kano (the developer) to make it a link on the desktop... maybe next release. :)

David.

Aloha!

Molly E. Holzschlag came to Hawai'i. She took some photos. Here they are (released under Creative Commons Some Rights Reserved license). The photo below shows Koko Crater (also known, in Hawaiian, as Kohelepelepe). Immediately above it is the only official public outdoor shooting range on the island of O'ahu. Just above the range is the famed (and usually very crowded!) Hanauma Bay Nature Reserve.

Photo by Molly E. Holzschlag.

Have a Great Weekend, Everyone - Aloha!

There is more than one way to get to the moon and planets, which way is the best is now beginning to be debated.

Even as the space shuttle is set to return tomorrow, NASA understands that it needs a replacement for the aging shuttle fleet. The questions is: replace it with what? What is the mission? What criteria should be used to determine what the next manned spacecraft should be able to do?

This Popular Mechanics article says it may look something like the illustration on the left. According to the article, the "primary requirement is to 'ensure crew safety through all mission phases.'" One would think that is a given, but perhaps I am mistaken. The other stated goal is to have a vehicle able to go beyond Earth orbit.

The article is kind of fuzzy on the details but it appears the Lockheed Martin shuttle would be made up of three parts (crew module, mission module, and propulsion stage), each launching separately. The modules would then dock in low earth orbit (LEO) and continue on to its destination, whether the space station or the moon and beyond. While this certainly makes for mission flexibility, I think it increases the complexity and the number of things that could cause mission failure.

For example, it could take six to nine or more launches, depending on the mission, to assemble the required modules in LEO. As we should have learned from our experience in building the International Space Station, a lot of things can and will go wrong while trying to assemble a multi-module space craft in LEO.

I could be wrong, but I seem to remember a debate, during the early part of the race to moon, whether to go directly there or use multiple launches and assemble in LEO and then go on to the moon. The decision was to go directly to the moon because, it was determined, it was simpler (and simpler is more reliable and usually safer).

Nonetheless, I guess the closest analogy is one of a train and its modular design. When bigger payloads are needed, you add more engines and then more cars to carry more cargo. Don't need to carry more but want to go farther? Add more propulsion and fuel. In other words, you configure the craft to meet the mission.

Another big change, but perhaps a retrograde one when returning, is the shuttle would not glide back to Earth but rather, would use parachutes. Much like the spam-in-a-can capsules of the 1960's and 70's. Thus, the dream of a shuttle that could fly into space and fly back, much like the commercial aircraft of today, would end.

Whether this is the winning design is too early to determine, but I wonder if the design criteria shouldn't be made clearer, first.

Aloha!

It seems that we are hit by so many ads that most times we don't even notice them. But sometimes we do.

For example, I went to a news site recently to read a story about a judge who will rule on a case in which his or her recent pay raise is the issue in dispute. That's an interesting situation because it appears to be a conflict of interest.

But what caught my eye was an ad that the news site was serving. First, let me say that I realize that web pages can be created that are tailored, in one way or another, to the individual viewing the page. I think the best known examples are Google ads that appear based on the terms you are searching on.

So, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that at least one other site seems to be keying in on who you are by, I think, parsing your domain in the hope of selling you something. The ad below is the one that appeared on the site:

The ad is for a national chain of electronics super stores that recently opened in Hawaii. I have to give them credit for tailoring the ads such that it is at least geographically relevant. In fact, the ad is also relevant to me because of my interest in electronics (though, I assume, they have no direct way of knowing that). So full marks for that.

But I'm troubled by the ad for two reasons. The first is the phrase "Experience a luau of the latest technology." Perhaps I'm overly sensitive, but I don't appreciate mainland chains coming here and acting as if they are kama'aiana (literally, child of the land or island). In my opinion, it is rather presumptuous to assume you fit in just because you throw a Hawaiian word into your ad. I mean, if I went to parts of Los Angeles and tried throwing out Spanish phrases I might have my head handed to me in pretty quick order.

The second problem I have is I think it's a little creepy to tailor ads. I like to think the Internet is a vast anonymous sea. While I realize this isn't necessarily true, and becoming less so everyday, nonetheless my privacy is something I take seriously. So I don't appreciate sites trying to figure out who I am so that they can sell more goods or services.

Oh well, as I said, maybe I'm just overly sensitive about these things.

It seems to me that sometimes, we resist change even when, in the long run, it will benefit us. Perhaps because it is seen as work to implement a change. Maybe because, in the short-term, the change is not advantageous or because we didn't initiate the change and we don't trust others who want to force change upon us. Sometimes we resist change because our eyes are clouded and therefore cannot see the good end result. Other times, we may may understand the need for change, but stay silent out of respect for others who may not understand and therefore be offended by such a change.

This may be one of those times in which all of the above is occurring. However, I cannot remain silent because the stakes are much too high and the damage that could result is too great to stand by and watch a great institution be torn apart.

Before I go farther [insert the standard disclaimer here], I need to note, as I've noted before, that I attended the Kamehameha Schools (but did not graduate from there), a private school founded in 1887 through the will of the last surviving royal descendant of King Kamehameha -- Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop.

At the time I was there, in the early 1970's, the Kamehameha Schools had only one campus and approximately 3,000 students (kindergarten through 12th grade) encompassing all races, backgrounds, and religions (but with a preference for native Hawaiians).

With that said, a brief history may be helpful to further set the context of the situation.

Before the arrival of foreign peoples, as many as 800,000 native Hawaiians may have lived on these blessed islands (pre-contact population estimates vary from a low of 200,000 to over 800,000. Compare this to the present day total population of not just Hawaiians, of about 1.2 million).

But due to our isolated location, Hawaiians, for centuries, had no contact with other peoples and therefore had built up no resistance to even what many consider to be common childhood diseases. But after coming in contact with such disease carrying foreign peoples in the late 1700s, the population declined, in the span of just over one generation, to less than 50,000.

Reacting in horror to the shocking and rapidly continuing decline in the population of her people, the Princess hastened to try, if possible, to provide for their educational needs after the last of the Kamehameha line was gone. One must remember that, due to this rapid decline, it wasn't at all clear there would be any native Hawaiians to educate after her death. Hence her will did not say to educate only native Hawaiians, fearing there wouldn't be any, rather only that preference should be given to native Hawaiians, if any, and especially those who were orphaned. But her other writings, and those of whom she spoke to, seem to clearly indicate she was desperately trying to spare as many native Hawaiians as she could, through education, so that they would not disappear from the face of the Earth.

For the more than two centuries since then, the Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate (hereinafter Estate), the entity created to fund the school, was cash poor but land rich. Indeed, at the time of her death, Princess Pauahi owned approximately one-tenth of all lands in the Hawaiian islands.

However, because much of these lands were in remote areas not immediately fit for habitation or set aside for watershed or other conservation efforts revenues from said lands were relatively small and therefore the school did not have the resources to expand.

But some of the Estate's lands included prime properties in Waikiki and the very expensive area called Kahala. However, it is my understanding that the Estate leased these lands at, for the most part, below market value. Why this was done is a long and winding road down paths littered with greed, politics, intrigue, double dealing, and Estate trustees seemingly more concerned with lining their pockets than educating children of Hawaiian ancestry.

That said, one of the lessons learned by native Hawaiians was that land was the basis for all that exists. Without land, you are nothing. Hence, we were loathe to part with any land, even if it might be beneficial to do so in certain instances.

When the Estate eventually began to raise lease rents to market values, politically adept lessees became angry and persuaded the local city council to pass an ordinance requiring the Estate to sell certain lands in fee (the lessees had to meet various requirements but having done so, the Estate had to sell regardless of what the Estate wanted to do).

Various native Hawaiian groups were up in arms and cried over how their land was being stolen. Although it can be argued that they were right, the forced selling of the land was found legal.

If there was a silver lining to this dark cloud, the eventual outcome of all these former lessees buying the Estate land in fee is that the Estate now has an estimated worth of about $6.2 billion USD and is one of the larger charitable trusts in the US, if not perhaps the world.

With these new funds, the school has expanded to two other islands (Maui and Hawaii) and now enrolls, through the various campuses and pre-school programs approximately 6,500 students; making Kamehameha the largest, independent private school in the entire United States.

But last week, three federal judges, in the much larger US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled (warning: link goes to a PDF) that the Kamehameha Schools policy on giving preference to Hawaiians is illegal under federal statute 42 U.S.C. § 1981.

Although this case still has a ways to go before it is finally settled, I have long felt that native Hawaiians will not find justice in the US legal system. The US system simply does not sufficiently take into account the special needs of this place and its people and perhaps, never will.

In the final analysis, I have come to believe that it is only through self-governance that we can find justice. Whether we will ever become self-governing I cannot say. But in the mean time, I think we have to prepare for the harm that certain groups of people will try to do to us in the name of the law.

In chess, you sometimes sacrifice a pawn now to create the opportunity for a better position in later moves. Likewise, I believe the admission criteria for the Kamehameha Schools should be amended to provide for the education of all Hawaii's children, native Hawaiian and not. By doing so, the school itself can continue on.

I believe this for two reasons. First, it may avoid a long and costly legal battle that, in the end, we may lose. Millions will be spent defending us against laws that were originally created to end white racist control over Blacks. These laws are now effectively being turned against native Hawaiians, by some of the same types of people that so long ruled over Blacks.

Our programs, such as the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, was first to be successfully attacked by certain haoles. Now, it is the Kamehameha Schools. Who knows what will be next. But in the end, I believe, it is just a matter when, not if, most if not all the programs created to help right the wrongs perpetuated against native Hawaiians will be found illegal.

Secondly, native Hawaiians are no longer in danger of becoming extinct. If anything, the number of Hawaiians or part-Hawaiians is growing [Late update, the Census Bureau released data which shows a decline in native Hawaiian population over the last four years. Read the full story here]. If things continue as they are, there is no danger whatsoever that we will go the way of the Dodo bird. I believe the mission of the Kamehameha Schools should reflect the changed circumstances and remove the policy of only native Hawaiians and expand it to all children in Hawaii (realizing, of course, that no private school has the funding to enroll all students).

I believe we must adapt. I believe the future is ahead of us, not behind. I believe that if we meet the challenges before us, we will come out of this a stronger people for it just as the Estate has become financially stronger as a result of converting lease to fee.

In the end, I agree with the Princess that the way to save ourselves is through education. And by educating everyone, we can now only grow stronger until that day when we can govern ourselves and sing, in the words of the old Black spiritual: "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Although I did not attend the march, below are some photos taken during the march held last Saturday. It is estimated between 10,000 to 15,000 participated in the march from I'olani Palace to Mauna Ala (the final resting place of the royal ali'i). Photos found on the Internet from various sources.

The powerful and resonant sound emanating
from the massed conch shells gave me
"chicken skin" when I heard them on the news.

Heading mauka through Chinatown.

Half-way there.

Almost there.

For additional reading:

The Washington Post

The Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

Aloha!

I realize modern CPUs are generating a lot of heat. But this guy went too far. He created a computer case made up of 70 fans. That's right. 70 fans.

No word yet when the utility company will build a wind farm in his room and start buying electricity created by all the wind from the fans...

Aloha!

I received the evaluation copy of SuSE 9.3 Pro a couple of days ago. Unfortunately, what Novell sent to me was the "Live" version. This version runs exclusively from a DVD, not from a hard drive.

Even with that limitation, I decided to take a look see. So I copied the supplied ISO image to my hard drive and then used EasyCD Creator to burn the DVD. However, the first try failed and I had try again. I don't know what went wrong but the second try created a bootable DVD.

After rebooting with the DVD, SuSE 9.3 Pro came up. I decided to try the browsers first. Firefox seems to run fine and since I regularly use it and don't need to see it again, I decided to take a look at Konqueror. I immediately noticed how much faster Konqueror loads and runs compared to Firefox. I don't know if this is because it is integrated into the operating system (if indeed it is) or some other reason. Still, Konqueror is a nice little browser and I could probably use it more.

Next up was the primary email application - Evolution. Unfortunately, Evolution failed to load. All I got was a message saying "The Application 'evolution' has quit unexpectedly. Restart. Close. Inform." Restarting failed to get it going and "inform" just tries to send a bug report. So I closed. I don't know if it even runs under KDE, which is what I was running or only under Gnome. If so, I wonder why SuSE includes an icon to it even when using KDE?

On the other hand, Kmail configured and worked just fine so there's always that.

Another non-starter was sound. I don't know what it is about the Dell Optiplex line but this is not the first distribution that I've had sound problems with. On the other hand, Xandros does a fine job so maybe the problem is with running Linux from a DVD or a configuration miscue.

For all that, the main reason I even considered looking at SuSE 9.3 Pro is that Novell's Netware Client for Linux (still in beta at this writing) is designed to run on it. But although I could download the 12MB Netware client, I could not expand it due to lack of "disk" space (which is understandable when you are running on a DVD-ROM). Thus, my experiment with SuSE 9.3 Pro comes to a quick and ignoble end.

This is a shame since the only thing holding me back from converting to Linux, any Linux, as my main operating system, is the lack of a Netware client. We have a load of Netware servers (as well as Windows, Sun, DEC, IBM mainframes, etc) that I need to access.

Yes, I know about and have tried various utilities that call themselves Netware clients. But. They aren't. Not really, anyway. I would guess that none have even 80 percent of the functionality of the Novell client for Windows. The show stopper, for me, was the lack of communication between the server and the various clients. Especially the notification that your password has expired and it is time to change it. Since, as far as I know, the various Linux-based utilities do not tell you this, you have no idea there is a problem until you no longer can log in. At that point, you have to contact the administrator to reset your password. Not a GoodThing(r).

Anyway, I wish I could report more but that's all I have. Perhaps, at some point, I'll download the six-month evaluation version of Novell's Desktop Linux 9, which is based on SuSE 9. At least that version appears to run from your hard drive (and is free, as in . . . free). But that won't happen until I have six blank CDs.

For now, I decided to install an older version of SuSE that I got last year. It's version 9.1 Pro and that installed to my hard drive without problems. Everything, including sound, seems to work. So I will try downloading the Novell Client and see if I can get it to install correctly. More when I know more.

The TV and movie industries have, for the most part, been a good source of income here in Hawai'i. Not only are they mostly environmentally friendly, but in addition to the well paid union jobs they create, you get free advertising probably worth millions.

From Hawaii Five-O, Magnum PI, Lost, to various TV shows, movies (e.g., Jurassic Park and Raiders of the Lost Ark) and commercials, Hollywood has been, on balance, mostly good for Hawai'i.

But in some cases, and not necessarily the ones listed above, there are behind the scenes efforts to get "special consideration" or incentives from government and businesses. By that I mean tax credits, free/reduced sound stage rents, free/reduced housing, free/reduced air fare, etc. The unstated threat is that if you don't give the producers such consideration, they will either leave and go somewhere else where someone will accommodate their demands, or not come in the first place.

Unfortunately, sometimes it works. Places like Canada and Australia provide huge tax credits, worth millions of dollars, to come and film in their locations. Hollywood has responded by filming in these countries specifically because of these inducements.

But the question is always, do you get more benefits from these films than the cost of these considerations? Oftentimes, this is a difficult question to answer because of the problem of measuring the benefits. Figuring out how much direct taxes are paid by the companies is usually doable. The problem is in figuring out how much taxes are generated by people viewing the movies/TV series and deciding, on that alone, to come to Hawaii and spend some money.

That question aside, local and state governments, all over the country, have joined the tax giveaway sweepstakes. This is not only for movies. I'm talking about tax adjustments/credits for just about every business there is.

But this article says many, if not most of these efforts end up being huge scams where taxpayers end up holding an empty bag.

Although I'm not saying there shouldn't be incentives for business, I am saying you to have to carefully consider the costs versus the benefits by following up and evaluating the programs. Otherwise, all you are doing is stealing from the poor and giving to the rich.

Have a Great Weekend, Everyone - Aloha!

In another earlier post, I said native Hawaiians were in no danger of going the way of the Dodo bird. But perhaps I spoke too soon because no sooner did I say that, then the US Census Bureau released the latest census numbers which indicate, over the last four years, that the number of native Hawaiians declined by 1.3 precent (279,651 down from 283,430). Sigh.

Obviously, it is unclear, and probably too early to tell whether this is a statistical anomaly, the start of a trend, or a reflection of Hawaiians moving to other states [/irony]. But if this trend, for whatever reason, continues it may portend even more bad things in store for us...See the story here.

This post continues the story from yesterday on my efforts to get a Linux desktop that I can use in place of Windows. The deal breaker has been and continues to be (read below) getting a Netware client that works as well as the one for Windows.

Okay, after installing the required packages (gcc, make, and the kernel source (all 180MB of it)), I ungzipped the Novell Netware Client for Linux, pointed the SuSE package installer - YaST at the directory where the client extracted to, and Bob's your cousin, it installed.

Too bad I can't get connected to my primary Netware server. As I feared, the client seems to only works with Netware versions 5.x and above. But most, if not all of our Netware servers are stuck at version 4.x with no plans, that I know of, to upgrade.

So, I guess, I really can't get there from here (which is not a reflection on the client except that it should be backwards compatible with older Netware versions). Otherwise, the client seems to work fine for betaware.

What's really amusing is that even if I got connected, the documentation says they haven't yet gotten the password changing part working. If you may remember, my problem with the other so called Netware clients is that they don't notify you when the password is about/has expired. Hence, you end up being locked out unless you mark on your calendar a date prior to expiration and change it manually.

While I could probably live with that lower level of functionality, I think I'll wait awhile until Novell gets to version 3.x of their client before switching full time to Linux. By then, we will either have upgraded to Netware version 5.x or will have converted all the servers to Windows [gasp] or Linux.

Even though I don't think any distribution of Linux is ready to provide me with the functionality, in our business environment at work (including access to Netware servers), that Windows has slowly developed over the years, that doesn't mean it can't already work for me at home.

As such, I've decided to switch all three of my desktop PCs at home to Xandros Linux (with Codeweavers). No, SWMBO will continue with Windows and no, I'm not switching my laptop, yet.

Why switch these three? In my opinion, the threat of spyware has gotten to a point where the available tools are inadequate to protect me from such programs. Yes, I already use Ad-Aware, Spybot S&D, Spyware Blaster, and Microsoft's AntiSpyware (beta).

But even using all four, tests have shown that spyware can still get through. So I've decided to spend most of my home computing time in Xandros/Codeweavers. Do I think that will stop all spyware? No, these people have an economic incentive to adapt and evade. Hence, they will probably find ways to attack Linux users. But at least it won't be so easy (I hope). YMMV.

Aloha!

Pavement artists have probably been around as long as there have been, well, pavements. If you like that kind of temporary art, then you might like this guy who does 3-D renderings that are amazing.

Aloha!

There is an old saying about how the money is in the razor blade, not the razor. Transferring this to computers, I think, you could say the money is in the software, not the hardware used to execute it.

While that last statement can be debated (especially in regards to a hardware giant like Intel whose net revenue for 2004 was about $7.5 billion USD versus Microsoft's net revenue of about $5.4 billion (both numbers from their respective annual SEC Form 10-K filings and note they each have different fiscal years)), I still think the saying has some truth to it. YMMV. Insert disclaimer here.

To the extent that this is true, then I've often wondered why Apple doesn't put more emphasis on software instead of tying people to their hardware. I mean, what's the point of tying both together and, as a result, being relegated to a small niche segment of the huge technology market because your hardware is so expensive?

The latest example of where the market seems to want to go and, apparently, Apple doesn't is in its new flagship operating system OS X for PCs. This version is designed, as the name suggests, to run on the new Intel-based PCs that Apple is slated to start selling over the next few years.

However, the software is apparently locked to run only on Apple PCs with the so called "Trusted Platform Module" (TPM) chip installed. The software supposedly will not run unless the chip is present and said chips would come only with Apple approved hardware.

However, the inventive folks over at the OSX86Project are demonstrating that, yes Virginia, you can run Apple's operating system on $200 Intel systems without the TPM. Whether this is a GoodThing(r), or legal for that matter, is also debatable. But, I think this is the path the market seems to want to take.

In the final analysis, Jobs will do what Jobs will do. But, as another old saying goes: "Tell me which way the people want to go so that I may lead them there." is one way to sell a lot of razor blades (and software, too).

Aloha!

Insert disclaimer here. Sometimes, it seems, lawsuits are filed as a way of retribution rather than a path to justice. Although, which it is (retribution or justice), is probably defined by which party you are and whether you win.

But sometimes, such suits are recognized for what they are and the court is able to order remedies that, perhaps, will decrease the likelihood of other such suits.

For example, a US District Judge recently fined a "law firm and two of its attorneys...$267,000 for helping the developer of a controversial condominium project file a frivolous lawsuit against its opponents..." (read the story from FindLaw here).

It seems a developer wanted to build, among other things, 132 luxury lake-side condominiums. But the residents of a small nearby town protested the move saying "the development would threaten the bald eagle, which is protected under the Endangered Species Act."

The developer retained the attorneys to file a racketeering lawsuit against several of those opposed to the development. However, the judge found no basis for the suit, dismissed it, and took the extraordinary step of fining the the law firm and two attorneys.

Although the fine will be appealed, the judge does seem to have sent a message that is being heard, loud and clear.

Programing Note: Tomorrow is a state holiday (Statehood Day) so no post until Monday.

Aloha!

Wow! Talk about retro. The IMSAI 8080, or at least a version of it called the Series II USB, is apparently being manufactured. I say apparently because the site is kind of disorganized. But you can see the site here for yourself and decide whether you want to part with over $1,000 for something like this.

Note that you can use a regular ATX-style motherboard if you want to have a retro outside but a modern interior or buy one of their S-100. Your choice. There is also a Zilog eZ80, running at 50MHz, developers kit for those of you who are into Z-80 code (all two of you out there). The Series Two runs CP/M, although they say you have to download some of the code from other sites since they are unlicensed.

You must also remember that this is 1970s technology so when they say their system works best with hard drive partitions of no larger than 8MBs, they do in fact mean eight megabytes, not gigabytes. And when they talk about floppy drives, they are mostly referring to 5.25-inch or eight-inch drives, although you can also connect a 3.5-inch (assuming here that the diskettes can be formatted with the correct tracks, sectors, density, and side-select).

I never used, much less saw, one of the original IMSAIs back in the day. During my time in college, it was a DEC PDP-11/45 running RSTS/E, where I learned to program in Basic Plus and the Apple II, which supported, gasp, color!

Later on I purchased my own Atari 800XL, monochrome (yellow characters on black) monitor, and saved programs to cassette tapes until I got enough money to buy an external floppy drive. Hard drives? Those were those big glass platters spinning in floor standing cabinets that only the big boys had. Oh well, enough nostalgia.

Aloha!

According to this BBC report, Dr. Nguyen Phuoc Huy, a medical doctor in a poor area of Vietnam, couldn't afford the $30,000 USD cost of buying an endoscopic system. Said system is used to view the interior of the human body to aid in diagnosing various problems. It is especially useful in minimally invasive surgeries where a relatively small incision can be made for the camera lens and then the doctor's hand is guided by the image provided by the endoscope.

Not knowing much about optics or computers, the good doctor taught himself what he needed to know, consulted with others when he ran into problems, then designed and built his own endoscope for about the cost of the scope itself ($800).

I love this kind of ingenuity where you take what you have, learn what you need to learn, and then create something useful on a tight budget.

Aloha!

Sorry, no post today. I'm really busy at work trying to finish a project due next week Thursday so I gotta go. Until then, talk amongst yourselves.

Aloha!

You may not always agree with the man, as I did not regarding a contest they had that only let in 'Mericans living in the lower 48 states. But they corrected that when it was pointed out.

But the O'Reilly family of sites is being taken to task for some of the advertising therein. Mr. O'Reilly has a longish post and getting longer series of comments on the subject.

I think the conversation that has started on the subject is an important one because it affects how well Google searches perform (understanding that "well" is a relative term). What is the right way to advertise, given that advertising pays the bills for many sites, is a difficult question. But at least Mr. O'Reilly understands the questions to ask. If you have the time, go read his post and the comments to it.

Aloha!

Speaking of Wikipedia, the Wikimedia Foundation is doing a fund raiser. You can follow the link to the site to see why they're asking for money and then decide if it's worthwhile to donate. You decide. YMMV. Insert disclaimer here.

Well, no, not actually. You've probably heard of the Internet phenomenon referred to as the Flying Spaghetti Monster, or Pastafarians, as some adherents are called. Wikipedia has as good an explanation as anyone else on this passing fad so feel free to follow the link and see what the noise has been all about.

I'm still cranking away on the project that is due next week Thursday so I gotta go.

Have a Great Weekend, Everyone - Aloha!

Congratulations to the Ewa Beach, Hawaii World Champion Little League Baseball team. I don't have the time to give you a play-by-play but it was one heck of a championship game yesterday. Down 6-3 in the final inning they come back to tie it and send it into extra innings. Then, in the bottom of the first extra inning, a walk-off home run won the game for the plucky team from West O'ahu, Hawaii over the defending champions from Curacao.

Well done to the kids and their coach Layton Aliviado. You can read more from the Honolulu Star-Bulletin here.

Things will continue to be sparse around here while I continue to work on my project.

Aloha!

It seems the Governor of Kentucky, Ernie Fletcher (R), has gotten himeself into a bit of problem. Said problem may involve illegal hiring practices (Shocked! Shocked, I say!). His response when that pesky Attorney General, Greg Stumbo (D), started investigating? Why, the Good Governor pardoned everyone and then said no one was guilty of any lawbreaking, even though he was pardoning everyone for doing just that (i.e., lawbreaking).

Any Governor who believes he has to pardon his staff for wrongdoing that he says they didn't do is saying to the voters - "I believe you are the idiot issue of cousins mating and therefore will not know, nor care, that I'm lying to you."

See the story here.

Aloha!

I've recently noticed that when I go to Google to search on something, I will sometimes get a cookie request from the first link that Google finds in the search.

I thought this was strange since I didn't click on the link to the first search response. In fact, I hadn't clicked on any link. Yet, I was being asked to accept a cookie from the site as if I had.

Well, now we know what is going on. The Mozilla family of browsers (which includes Firefox) implement an HTML tag that prefetchs content. The Mozilla FAQ says:

Link prefetching is a browser mechanism, which utilizes browser idle time to download or prefetch documents that the user might visit in the near future. A web page provides a set of prefetching hints to the browser, and after the browser is finished loading the page, it begins silently prefetching specified documents and stores them in its cache. When the user visits one of the prefetched documents, it can be served up quickly out of the browser's cache.

So, this is how, when using Google, Mozilla prefetches documents and stores it on your computer, without your knowledge or approval, even though you haven't clicked on any links found by your search.

In this day of super spammers, porno purveyors, and virus vermin, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that this is a vector for BigProblems(tm). Imagine the police taking you and your PC to jail because of illegal content downloaded and stored on your PC without your knowledge or consent. Imagine Trojan Horses or viruses being downloaded without your knowledge or consent.

While you can turn this "feature" off (and I urge you to do so by following the directions from Google here), I think it should be off by default. This is so obviously a problem, rather than a feature, that you have to hope that Mozilla hasn't begun to emulate Microsoft's evil ways.

The state of New Mexico passed a 2004 law that provides for the permitting of citizens to carry a concealed weapon if "they complete firearms training and pass national and local criminal background check."

Since then, approximately 3,100 New Mexico citizens have received the permits. Although I'm sure many people thought the world would end with so many gun toting people running around, it hasn't happened.

In fact, until last week, none of the permitees had discharged their weapons (other than, perhaps, at the shooting range). It seems a 72 year-old volunteer named Due Moore, with the police department's cold case unit, observed a man stabbing a woman. Apprarently, Moore ordered the man to stop, but the man continued to stab the woman, so Moore fired his weapon and killed the assailant. [See the article here]

The article says, under New Mexico law, it is up to the District Attorney's office to decide whether to prosecute Moore. However, the preliminary investigation appears to support a justificable action.

I know, a lot of people think, since I'm a Democrat, that I'm against all guns. That is incorrect. I have no problems with guns. In high school, I was a member of a National Rifle Association affliated rifle shooting club. Later, I became an adult member of the NRA (I am no longer a member, but the reasons for that have no bearing on this subject).

Target shooting, I believe, can build concentration and discipline (not to mention having a lot of fun). That said, I do have problems with people who shouldn't have guns using them, but I am all for law abiding citizens being able to protect themselves and others. Bottom line is as long as you responsbily use firearms, I have no problem with citizens owning and using them.

Aloha!