Misc. Ramblings

Our newsletter gives some additional details regarding the recent use of the Supreme Court building as a set for the TV series "Lost".

"On Nov. 3, the magic of Hollywood transformed Hawaii's Supreme Court building into a college in England for an upcoming episode of "Lost." The flashback scene involved character Desmond David Hume, played by actor Henry Ian Cusick, seeking advice from a former professor. Several extras, make-up staff and production crews were on hand in the front rotunda to film the scene. To give the space an English feel, light bulbs were changed, the Chief Justice's Chambers became the library, and actors were costumed in sweaters and scarves."

Have a Great Weekend, Everyone - Aloha!

As we get closer to the new year, expect to see more and more "Top 10" lists. Like? Well, for example, the folks over at The Simple Dollar dot com site have this "30 Essential Pieces of Free (and Open) Software for Windows." As the name suggests, the software runs on Windows. However, that does not mean there aren't any versions for other operating systems. In fact, many of them do have GNU/Linux versions so some of them may sound familiar to the Linux user.

The top five are: 1. Firefox (Internet browser), 2. Thunderbird (Internet email), 3. Sunbird (calendaring), 4. Abiword (word processing), and 5. OpenOffice (office suite). YMMV. Insert disclaimer here.

Aloha!

Sometimes, being a big organization is an advantage. But sometimes its not. Over this past weekend, I had the opportunity to test the customer service levels of two organizations.

The first is Hawaiian Telcomm (hereinafter "HT). HT took over from Verizon around April of last year. Although the company tried to put forth a good face, by saying how it would become a "local" company, with most back office services relocated from the mainland to here, things have not been all light and happy.

From the very beginning, it was clear that HT was unprepared. Bills were sent out late or people where charged twice for the same month. People calling in with problems had to wait on hold for very long periods of time because the customer service staff were insufficient to cover the load.

In my case, when I called on Saturday to report the loss of dial tone, I waited less than a minute to get through. However, the earliest time a technician could come out was Monday afternoon. Compare this to the same day service that Verizon provided when I last needed assistance (also on a Saturday).

Although I am happy that the wait time on hold was substantially better than in the past, the time to actually get someone out to the house has been substantially increased. This is not good customer service.

In addition, I am still disappointed that Verizon is rolling out extremely high speed fiber optic Internet service to homes on the mainland (at speeds up to 30Mbps!), something that would eventually have reached here had HT not taken over. Conversely, HT has, well, nothing except 3Mbps DSL.

The other organization is Best Buy (hereinafter "BB"). Although I appreciate the coming of "big box" retailers to Hawaii, because it brings more choice and selection to customers, the downside seems to be a lack of service.

We bought a gas range from them that had a pretty good price. But we were surprised to learn that BB does not include delivery or installation. If we wanted them to deliver, install the new range, and remove the old one, we would have to pay over $200 additional (bringing the grand total to over $700USD).

Okay, bad as that was, it got worse. BB contracts out the delivery and perhaps the installation (I'm not clear on that part). Since each company is separate from the other we were told that the delivery company would deliver sometime during the day (we would get a call the day before narrowing it down to, essentially, before lunch or after). After which, the installer would come and unhook the old range and install the new. The delivery people would then need to come back to pickup the old one.

But wait, it got even worse. On Friday, the day before the actual installation, BB left a message at home (rather than calling me at work, which is what I wanted them to do), saying the delivery would come between 4:00 and 7:00 pm. The problem with this is if the delivery occurred at 7:00 pm, it would be doubtful that the installer would come that late in the evening. Being that the delivery was scheduled for a Saturday, and it is doubtful the installer would work on Sunday, the earliest the new range could get installed would be the following Monday. This would leave our tenants with no range from Saturday to Monday.

So, we called BB to reschedule it for an earlier time. After waiting for someone to answer the phone for 45-minutes, and trying to get through to various other lines, we got through and rescheduled the appointment for the following Saturday (but with the same caveat that the moving company would schedule the actual time, regardless of whether we wanted a morning delivery).

In the mean time, we saw an add from a small neighborhood appliance store. Although the price of the range was about $100 higher than BB, the store included free deliver, installation, and removal. Thus, saving us about $100. In addition, the range appeared to have more features and seemed better built.

So, we went to BB to cancel the order. After standing in the customer service line for about 30 minutes, it took the service person another 20-30 minutes to figure out how to cancel the order (she had to talk to four other people to get it right). In total, we spent about an hour, just to cancel the order.

We then went over to the smaller store, spent about 10 minutes to pay for the range and arrange the date and time for delivery/installation (they do their own delivery and installation so we could schedule it then and there). We will have to see whether the small store lives up to its promise to deliver, install, and remove the old range as scheduled, but if they do, they will have a customer for other appliance that we may need.

Clearly, there are competitive advantages that larger companies may have. But being big doesn't guarantee this will translate to better service or price. To me, it all depends on what management sees as being important.

In the HT case, being a small local company has not translated into better service or selection. In the BB case, being a large company has brought better selection, but not better service or price.

The upside is service, selection, and price are controlled by management. Hence, if either organization saw an advantage to being better in any or all categories, they could.

Continuing on the theme of "Top 10" lists I started yesterday, the Washington Post has an article on the ranking of US Presidents. Now, before I say more, you need to keep some things in mind. First, consider the source. Secondly, know that the ranking of Presidents depends on the criteria used to judge them and who does the ranking. In some cases, the first may be last, and vice versa. Lastly, they say time heals all wounds and that, over time, the relative ranking of a President may change.

That all said, the article states that, based on leadership, policies, and use of power, President Bush is the worst President in US history.

This Sunday is the 34th annual Honolulu Marathon. At 5:00 in the morning, folks will be starting the 26.2 mile trek through the streets of Honolulu to Hawaii Kai and back.

Here for an autograph session include some of the greats of marathoning. Included are Kenya's and four time Olympic medalist Kip Keino, 1972 Olympic gold medalist Frank Shorter, and three-time New York Marathon winner Alberto Salazar.

Not that I'm in their league, but over 20 years ago, I too was up early and running my first, and only marathon. I took about six and and a half hours to finish, but I finished. Recently, my mother was going through some old pictures and found the contact print provided by the photo service hired by the marathon folks to document all the runners. It was taken just before the finish line at Kapiolani Park and reflects some of the pain I was feeling. You can click on the image for a larger version but I'm not sure why you would want to do that :)

Aloha!

'Tis the season to celebrate. But not too much. The folks over at Slate, responding to an article over at Lawyers.com, have come up with the perfect boiler plate wording to accompany your company's holiday season party invitations:

WARNING: You are herein invited to attend a Holiday Party. Should you choose to attend this event, you are herein advised that you do so at your own peril. Food served may be manufactured in factories that may contain machinery that may have touched peanuts. In the absence of any coherent party-based sexual-harassment policy, you are warned that any hugging/touching/casual flirting/wine-stem fondling/hair tossing/breast gazing/butt grabbing will be deemed actionable at law. All guests must maintain a 5-foot distance from all others at all times (spouses included). Appropriate topics for conversation are: work; sports; light political banter; reality-television shows. Any unapproved conversational topics shall be cleared in advance by the Human Resources department. All dance moves shall be preapproved by the HR department. Seminars on these moves shall be conducted twice daily in the small conference room on the second floor between now and the day of the party. All closets, conference rooms, restrooms, and other possible areas of sexual misconduct are to be padlocked for the duration of the event. Small children are to be chaperoned at all times. Any child found playing or otherwise conducting himself in a childlike manner will be summarily removed from the premises. Should you or your partner feel at any point during the party that you have been sexually harassed, socially discomfited, religiously proselytized, or otherwise made to feel uneasy in any way, a team of HR lawyers will be made available to you immediately. Do not minimize your feelings or wait a few days to see if the bad feeling blows over. Prompt attention to any social discomfort is critical to eradicating it in the workplace. Once again, we wish you and yours a very happy holiday season, and hope to make this year's office party the best ever.

Conservatism is the philosophy of consolation for those who used to control Congress.

December 7th, 1941, a date which will live in infamy. Many people know of the battleship USS Arizona memorial. The memorial itself rests astride the underwater hulk of the once mighty ship of that name that was sunk during the attack on that long past morning.

But not as many people know that part of the ship was removed in the early 1960s and stored on dry ground not far away. I don't know why this was done, but over the years, sections were cut out and sent as artifacts for other memorials around the country. Whether this is wise I am not in a position to say.

But the MorningPaper has a story about one USS Arizona survivor who has returned to rest his weathered hands on this section of rusting steel. The section represents a tangible symbol of that time. Something solid. Something that survivors can too place their hands on and remember the 900 men that are even now entombed below the harbor's green and murky waters.

On this day, please remember, honor, and thank the members of what is described as the "Greatest Generation" for their days are fast coming to a close.

Aloha!

Even though the courts are sometimes considered to be part of something called the justice system, I've long felt that courts interpret the law but legislatures define what justice is by creating laws. I know extremist on the left and right, each for their own reasons, may disagree.

But I believe the proper role of the courts does not, except in truly extraordinary circumstances, include legislating from the bench. Hence, I feel the actions of the courts in following the law and sentencing a drug dealer to 55 years in prison was correct. It is the law and the courts followed it.

The courts could have intervened if the law was found to be unconstitutional. However, it was not. Yes, deciding what is or is not constitutional may be a gray area and could change over time. But the courts must respect the law or, as I've posted before, the rule of law is lost.

So, the proper course of action for those who wish to change this is to petition their legislature. If, the legislators fail to act, then vote in different people who will. This, I believe, is how it is supposed to work.

"This is a court of law, young man, not a court of justice."
    -OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Jr. (1841-1935)
    Supreme Court Justice

Have a Great Weekend, Everyone - Aloha!

My wallpaper for the week is the shuttle Discovery as it lit up the sky Saturday night on its way to the International Space Station. This is one of the images that NASA has up at their site.

Aloha!

Although Christmas shopping doesn't start for another 12 days (at least, that's when men start shopping buying), you may want to treat yourself or someone else early and get a copy of Pournelle and Niven's Burning Tower (the sequel to Burning City)for your Palm PDA (or PC/Mac with the appropriate software). The ebook version was released on the 9th so it's unlikely that you or your giftee already have it (at least, in this version). Plus, the price is not bad at $6.99 on sale, as of this writing.

Aloha!

This is an update to a post I did earlier on the problems I had with Best Buy and how I canceled a $700 purchase because of it.

The folks I instead paid my money to are called "The Discount Store" and are located at 951 N. King Street, in Honolulu. They are a small neighborhood discount store so they don't have a fancy show room or spacious wide aisles (nor an army of surly sales people).

On the other hand, we got to choose the date and time that best worked for us. Compare this to Best Buy, who said we could request a day, but the outsourced delivery company would determine when would be the best time (for them) to deliver. If we didn't like that, we could go with another store.

So, we went with another store and got better service and saved about $100 (Even though the base cost of the range was higher than Best Buy, the delivery, installation, and removal of the old range was included in the price. Best Buy wanted to charge more than $200 extra so the actual out the door cost was higher at Best Buy.).

Although the delivery guys arrived about 15 minutes later then the one-hour period they said they would, I can live with that. So, even though The Discount Store is small and doesn't have a lot of selection, whenever we need an appliance, we will check them out first. In fact, we may never set foot in Best Buy. Ever. Because, at least in this instance, they treated their customers like cattle to the slaughter with disrespect. YMMV. Insert disclaimer here.

Aloha!

I use Kubuntu GNU/Linux at home and am generally pleased with it. But at work, I use Xandros GNU/Linux because it seems to integrate better w ith our network environment.

Recently, Xandros came out with Xandros Desktop Professional version 4.1. I paid my money for two copies (one to give as a gift and one for myself) and started installing it over the weekend.

Although I had heard Xandros would require "Activation" before you could access all of its services, I thought they had changed their mind about that. But I guess not. I'll get to that in a moment. First, a note about two other problems.

Even though Xandros is one of the easier to use distributions, getting my networked printer to work with it took a little guessing. I have an HP2600N color LaserJet printer hooked to my home network via the built in Ethernet port. When it comes time get Xandros to link to it, you need to use the appsocket choice (as opposed to http or ipp) and input the IP address in the following form: socket://192.168.1.100 (replacing the IP address with the address you have assigned to your printer). At least, that worked for me. YMMV.

The second problem is with Xandros Network (XN). XN is the interface to the Xandros repositories. You use it to update your system and is kind of like how Dr. Pournelle describes Apple computers (i.e., they either make things trivial to do or impossible). The first time I fired it up, it locked up. This is never a good thing but especially so when you are using a utility that alters your system. I have no idea why it locked up but otherwise, I have had no other problems (other than the one I will lay out next).

Now, back to the Xandros activation problem. After the main installation, something called the "First Run Wizard" executes and among other things, you are given the opportunity to register your product. It seemed like a good idea so I did. Below are the instructions located on the Xandros site (see the FAQ):

1. The next step is to sign in.

   • Already have an Account on http://shop.xandros.com ?

     1. Enter your E-Mail address and Password and click Sign In.

     2. Proceed to Step 3 Below

   • If you do not have a shop.xandros.com account, please create one

     1. Click Continue in the New Account square to the right of the screen and enter your registration details

     2. Proceed to Step 3 Below

2. Select your point of purchased from the Product Purchased from field. If it is not listed, please choose other and enter the store/website which you purchased your Xandros software from.

3. Enter the Serial Number which was included with your purchase and click Continue. The confirmation screen will be displayed. If you receive an error...

   • Please check and retry your serial number.

   • Products may only be registered once, if you've already registered it is no longer required.

   • If you are still unable to register, please contact Xandros technical support via e-mail at support@support.xandros.com

4. Check your account for e-mail from Xandros which includes your activation code.

5. Once you have received the Activation Code, return to the Registration page of the first run wizard (as documented in step 1). Enter the Activation code and click Activate Now.

6. Your Xandros Networks account has been activated. You are now able to access new updates and other interesting software for free, as well as special Xandros Editions of popular commercial software. A Xandros Networks Premium Membership entitles you to even more free applications and discounts on third party software and additional Xandros items.

I entered my serial number (received when I paid for my copy) and checked my email for activation code (see step 4 above). As I said, this was this past weekend. As of this morning, I have received no activation code. So I logged into my account at Xandros to see what was going on. The account confirms that I purchased two copies and even shows the serial numbers. But when I try to display my activation code for the copy I registered, nothing comes up. Sigh.

I will try running the First Run Wizard again to see if the problem was with the registration. If not, then I guess I'll be contacting Xandros support to find out why I can't get an activation code.

Regardless of what the problem is, this points out why I don't like these schemes. To me, all they are designed to prove is that their customers are not stealing their software. But even though they have a record that I paid for the two copies, I guess that's not enough.

As long as they keep an activation requirement, I don't know if I will ever buy another copy of Xandros. Especially since I could, with a little trouble on my part, get Kubuntu to work at the office. In fact, the next go around, that's probably what I will do. YMMV. Insert disclaimer here.

Aloha!

Yesterday, I posted about my problems with Xandros Desktop Professional 4.1. In response to the post, I got a comment from someone identifying himself as Matt, a product development specialist at Xandros. You can read the comment at the bottom of yesterday's post but essentially, he is saying they don't do activation anymore. I will take him at his word. But if so, they need to change their FAQ and online customer accounts to reflect this.

Have a Great Weekend, Everyone - Aloha!

I like a good rumor as much as the next guy (Google Apple iPhone and see what you get). So take the following as my attempt at starting a rumor (good or otherwise).

Most everyone knows about the connection between Apple iPods and the rock band U2 (see the special edition iPod here). Recently, U2 finished their latest tour right here in Hawaii.

Seen at the U2 show was Microsoft's Bill Gates. Seen at a restaurant was Gates and Bono (although perhaps not at the same table). Seen at the after party was Gates and Bono (sorry, can't find an online link). Even going back as far as May of last year (scroll down), Bono stayed over at Gates' home in Seattle.

Now, most of this is probably due to the charity work both Bono and Gates do. But wouldn't it be great if there were a U2 special edition of...now...wait...for...it - Microsoft's Zune!

Okay, so it's a little early for an April fools joke. But I couldn't resist...

I've mentioned before how there really isn't such a thing as doing an "upgrade" installation with Linux. No matter what they call it, it's just not a complete as when you do a Windows upgrade. And that, my friends, is faint praise to Microsoft because they do a pretty bad job of it. So if you try an upgrade installation of Linux (regardless of the distribution), you will probably have many problems.

Just to try it, I decided to do an upgrade installation of Xandros. Although things looked pretty good after the install, I'm beginning to run into problems.

First, in my old configuration, I had purchased and installed CrossOver Offce Professional directly from Codeweavers because they had a more recent version than Xandros (as an aside, do not expect to get the more recent versions of software from Xandros, even when you pay money for it). After the upgrade, as far as I can tell, Crossover Office Standard has taken over. I do not know what happended to my purchased copy. In addition, I had to reconfigure the Launch menu because none of my Windows applications showed up except, strangely enough, Lotus Notes. So, I had to add Excel, Word, Access, and PowerPoint to the menu.

Secondly, my problems with Xandros XN are growing. If I try to install certain files from the Xandros supported repository, I get error messages saying some files did not download. Well, no kidding. I thought that's what XN was for. I mean, I just upgraded this installation. Why am I having these XN problems? If I try to add the unsupported Debian resposity, I get a screen full of errors like:

Couldn't stat source package list http://xnv4.xandros.com xandros4.0-xn/contrib Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/xnv4.xandros.com_4.0_pkg_dists_xandros4.0-xn_contrib_binary-i386_Packages) - stat (2 No such file or directory)
Couldn't stat source package list http://xnv4.xandros.com xandros4.0-xn/contrib Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/xnv4.xandros.com_4.0_pkg_dists_xandros4.0-xn_contrib_binary-i386_Packages) - stat (2 No such file or directory)
Unable to parse package file /var/lib/apt/lists/xnv4.xandros.com_4.0_pkg_dists_xandros4.0-xn_main_binary-i386_Release (1)
Problem opening /var/lib/apt/lists/xnv4.xandros.com_4.0_pkg_dists_xandros4.0-xn_non-free_binary-i386_Packages
The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.

I gave up and wiped the disk to do a regular install. That seems to have made a a positive difference. At least, I can now download supported files.

I'm still undecided whether to recommend this distribution since every other distribution also has problems when upgrading. Still, I have to wonder when things will get better.

Aloha!

When all life on Earth (except for roaches) ends, it will probably be as a result of something like this story. Now, who knows if the story is true, but according to it, World War III almost began because of a long forgotten phone system.

This was during the Cold War and the Cuban missile crisis. As the story goes, it seems a direct link from air traffic controllers and fighter hangers was established. To activate the warning klaxons(tm), all you had to do was lift the receiver of the phone and the alarms would go off automatically.

Apparently, this system was replicated over several states. But eventually, the system was replaced with another and the phones removed. Except for one.

In New Jersey, someone failed to remove the phone and its direct link to the jets. Said jets targeted Cuba and were on ready alert twenty four hours a day. In a few minutes, they could be airborne, winging their way towards their, and our, fate.

One day, as part of a general cleaning, the staff found the dust encrusted red colored phone. By then, no one knew what the phone was for but they decided to pick up the receiver. Not hearing anything, including a dial tone, the staff replaced the receiver and gave it a good dusting probably thinking they would be praised to doing such a good job of cleaning the office.

Within minutes, the tower called to ask whether an Air Defense Command scramble had been order. When the mystified staff said no, the tower "Immediately transmitted to the aircraft, "F-86's taking off, abort, abort!" on the emergency radio, a frequency that all aircraft are required to monitor." Fortunately, the abort was received and World War III would have to wait for another day.

Aloha!

CMP/United Business Media owns Byte magazine. Back when Byte was actually published on paper, I used to have a subscription. Then it disappeared from the shelf and eventually became an online only publication. I subscribed to the new version so I could read the famed Chaos Manor column written by Dr. Jerry Pournelle.

But eventually CMP got rid of Dr. Pournelle. Perhaps the events are not connected, but it seems that around that time, I began to get all kinds of spam emails from one of CMP's other publications called Dr. Dobbs Journal. I especially got notices of seminars that Dr. Dobbs was involved in. Unfortunately, these emails were coded such that you could "unsubscribe" from _only_ the event that they were currently advertising. That is, there is no way to unsubscribe from ALL events. This essentially means you will ALWAYS get these spams. This is very clever. In some states, I wonder if it isn't also illegal because employing this method means you can never unsubscribe from future mailings.

Even using their CMP Feedback Page, which leads to an "Unsubscribe" page doesn't work. The unsubscribe page seems to be set to never allow you to actually submit the page (it endlessly requires you to enter your email address, which you already entered and a CAPTCHA, which is never accepted)(yes, javascript was enabled).

In addition, their "Privacy" page is a model of errors. Now, I'll be the first to admit that even I make mistakes. But I'm just a private citizen with no money to hire an editor. But if you look at the number of errors on the page, you have to wonder if CMP spent any time/money on proofing what they have. For example, they have a link to its corporate website: http://www.cmp.com.com/. Internet savvy users will note that there is an extra ".com" in the link. Hence, clicking on the link gets you nowhere.

In total, given the inability to unsubscribe, even when they give you the illusion that you can, a rational person could easily come to the conclusion that CMP was being less than honest. I hope these are just inadvertent errors, but you have to wonder when a supposedly high tech company can't even get its own URL right.

YMMV. Insert disclaimer here.

Aloha!

As our Republican governor gets ready to start her second and last term, she announced yesterday some changes in her administration. The big shocker, at least to me, was her firing of the head of the Hawaii Transportation Department, Rod Haraga.

Obviously, being a Democrat, I don't necessarily hold in high regard some of her appointments. In my opinion, there are those in her administration that are not qualified to fill the posts they are in. But I don't include Mr. Haraga among those.

As far as I could see, he was doing a good job in a very difficult position. But perhaps, that was his problem. I'm speculating here but I wonder if he didn't commit the most heinous of all political crimes. He appeared to me smarter, more in control, and a better leader than his boss, the Governor. I can't think of any other situation that is so hated by politicians. As an appointed official, you must never take credit for what you do. Rather, you must always say you are doing what the Governor wants and to refer all reporters to the Governor's office.

Mr. Haraga didn't do that. When the bridges came tumbling down, it was Mr. Haraga that was in front directing operations. When the hills came sliding over the freeway, it was Mr. Haraga assuring the public that he had things under control (which he did) and that everything would be alright (which it was). When the droppings hit the fan, it was Mr. Haraga who cleaned things up.

He appeared to be one of those very rare individuals in government that actually was highly qualified to do the job. Haraga is a civil and structural engineer with 32-years of experience in Los Angeles. His undergraduate degree is from Purdue University and has two advanced degrees -a Masters in Business Administration from the University of California at Los Angeles and a masters in Public Administration from California State University. He is also a graduate of Honolulu's St. Louis High School.

But with all that experience and education, he may have forgotten that it's about his boss, not the people he served. It's about making his boss look good, not doing the people's work. And in the Lingle administration, it is better to look good, than to be good.

As I said at the top, I'm just speculating here so I could be completely wrong. But you have to wonder.

So long to Mr. Haraga. Thank you for a job well done. Best wishes in your future endeavors.

Aloha!

Now that all the presents have been opened and you're still waiting for that flat panel TV, now is the time to think about upgrading so that you will be ready for the Super Bowl! It's too bad the after Christmas sales don't seem to have materialized. At least, not to the extent I've seen in past years. I guess retailers must have had a good Christmas.

Anyway, no, as I've said before, I don't want to get in to a flame war over which type of TV is better - plasma or LCD (actually, the old school tube has the better color rendition, contrast, and deep blacks and pure whites). But one of the manufacturers of all three types of TVs says, for larger screen sizes, plasma is best.

Why is Panasonic/Matsushita saying this? Well, Panasonic, the article says, insists that plasma has "superior contrast, color rendition, crisp motion, viewing angle and durability when compared to L.C.D. TVs."

Now, as I said at the top, I don't want to get in to any flame wars over this. If you like LCD, more power to you. I think Sony makes some of the better, if not the best LCD TVs around. So if you want to buy one, go right ahead.

As for me, if I were to buy a flat panel, which I'm not yet planning to do, I would get a Panasonic plasma. On the other hand, Sony still makes an old school CRT-type TV that is high definition, 34 inches, and sells for less than $1,000USD. This TV, to me anyway, beats both LCD and Plasma. Happy shopping! YMMV. Insert disclaimer here.

Aloha!

I'm going to do some house cleaning on the server for this site. As I do that, full access to this blog will not be available. If you come by during this time, the current page should be up, but not necessarily other services like search. Hopefully, the outage won't be long so things will be back to how they were shortly.

On the other hand, if it all goes badly, which it has in the past, my blog may be down for a couple of days. Stay tuned.

Aloha!

Okay, as far as I can tell, most of the behind the scenes changes to this blog went through without problems. What I did was upgrade to the latest version of MovableType. Like upgrading GNU/Linux distros, I don't really do an upgrade. What I do is backup the posts and then wipe the directories clean. Only after doing that do I install the new software. Otherwise, the old files don't necessarily get upgraded and you can end up with a partially upgraded system which makes for a fully unstable one. System, that is.

I note that the instructions on how to do the install leave out important parts. Like? If you are using GNU/Linux ftp to move the main install file from your PC to your web host, you need to remember that the file is in binary format (either .gz or .zip, depending on which one you downloaded). If you upload it as ASCII, you _will_ have problems. Problems that may be difficult to diagnose. Even after you've done the upload and extracted the file into the folder you will be using (e.g., /bin, /cgi-bin, /cgi-sys, or where ever you've chosen) , you need to move the sub-directory called mt-static out of your install directory to somewhere on your web root. How you do that varies on the operating system of your host so I will leave that as an exercise for the user.

However, there are some issues related to the default index template that still need to be changed. For instance, why does the template display each and every past month? I mean, I've been posting for several years now and the default should not display the months on the main page. Rather, the default should be a link to a separate page that breaks things up my month, organized by year.

Secondly, for some reason, the title of each post is displayed as a link. I'm not sure why that is, although it seems like a good idea except for the fact that they already provide a link to the post (its down there labeled as "permalink"). I'm not sure, but MT may be combining CSS files from the old version with the new. If so, I need to find out how that is occurring because, as far as I know, I've deleted or moved all the old directories.

Lastly, and this is not necessarily part of the upgrade, I've decided to bite the bullet and go "dynamic" in page creation. This means pages will be created on the fly rather than rendered as standard, static HTML. I do this not because I think it is a good idea (in fact, I think it's the opposite), but since my web host, pair.com., throttles the scripts that MT uses, which causes certain functions to fail, I don't have any choice. Of course, I could switch to another host or host this site myself, both of which I am looking into. But for now, this is how things will have to go. This means, however, I really have to remember to back up the content because should the database that actually stores these posts become corrupted or otherwise fail, _everything_ will be lost. Everything. Like, forever. YMMV. Insert disclaimer here.

Aloha!

Overall, I've been happy with my cellphone - a Motorola Razr V3. It is light, thin, and receives and holds signals fairly well. However, there are a several things that don't work for me.

First, the internal and external screens are unreadable when I'm outside or in the car. Unfortunately, this seems to be a characteristic of LCDs so until someone comes up with a better replacement, there's not much that can be done.

Second, the battery doesn't last very long. By long, I'm talking about two or three eight hour days on stand-by before I need to recharge. I'm not sure if advances in battery types will help this, but for now, there's not much that can be done.

Third, along the street and even in a noisy car, it is very difficult to hear the caller's voice. I've turned up the volume all the way but it just isn't very loud(or my hearing isn't very good). I've also tried using the speaker phone, which works well but that isn't an option in crowded locations or when privacy is required. I've even tried using a wired earpiece which also works but after a few months, it failed due to a shorted wire.

In a couple of months I will be eligible to change phones at a discounted rate. I may do that. But what phone I might get is still up in the air. I'm leaning towards getting one of the Palm Treo PDA. Most likely, the 680 for no other reason than because it the cheapest Treo (Nokia makes a nice unit but I'm not used to its interface. Still, at half the price, it will be in the running).

Why a PDA and why the Palm? Since becoming the division administrator six months ago, I've had to keep track of a multitude of appointments. At first, I tried using a day planner/calendar. But it was so big that I usually didn't take it with me, which defeats the purpose of having one because I can't refer to it at meetings if I don't have it. This was a big problem and for awhile, I was making notes at meetings then transferring the notes to the day planner when I got back to the office. Obviously, this was not very efficient.

So I bought the cheapest PDA, a Palm Z22. It's small, light, the battery lasts a long time and keeps my appointments. I'm quite happy with how it works. The problem is, I'm now carrying the Razr and a PDA. This is more than I want to carry around. So that's why I'm looking at a Treo. The downside of the Treos is, of course, they are larger than a Razr or Z22, individually. Still, I could fit one in my pocket. But who knows what kinds of phones will be available in a couple of months?

In the mean time, I went looking for a Bluetooth wireless headset to replace the wired earphone that failed. I know there are a bunch of headsets out there. Many of which are probably very good. But I was looking for one that had noise cancelling, which narrows the field and increases the price.

As it happens, my cellphone carrier, Cingular recently started selling something called the Jawbone Bluetooth headset [warning: site requires Flash]. Yes, I know, what a name. But I guess it's descriptive because, apparently, it uses sound conductance through the bones in the face as a way of reducing the noise picked up by its microphone. It also uses other circuitry to try to filter out certain types of impulse noises.

But when I called the nearest Cingular store to ask if they had one in stock, I was met with incredulous silence and then treated as if I was some kind of prank caller. So, I used the email address found in the Cingular press release and asked for help. Within a short time, a helpful person by the interesting name of Kelleigh Scott responded and asked what zip code I lived in. I sent that back and Kelleigh responded saying one had been put on hold for me at the Cingular store near my home! In a time of rude and/or unresponsive businesses, this was a very pleasant surprise. Imagine that, someone actually quickly and efficiently responded to an email. You better believe that after work, I went directly to the Cingular store and picked up my new headset. If only all businesses were like that! Well done Kelleigh Scott and well done Cingular.

Have a Great Weekend, Everyone - Aloha!