Okay. So just because everyone in the known world seems to be doing one is not a good reason to start my own day-notes type diary. But then, WTF not?

Consequently, this will be an ongoing experiment. I may like doing this or just chuck it and do something more interesting with my (and your) time.

I don't pretend to be a professional writer. As such, expect to see all kinds of grammatical errors. If you let me know what they are, I will gladly throw your email into the circular file.

Everything set forth herein are my own Miscellaneous Ramblings (R&T or Car and Driver, I can never remember which).

And so, on with it then.

My wife and I (She Who Can Not Be Disobeyed - henceforth known as SWCNBD) returned from our two-week vacation in San Francisco and Las Vegas last week. The weather in EssEff was anything but an Indian Summer. Day temps. in the mid 60s. Mostly clear in the city but sometimes light fog.

Stayed at the SF Hilton. Passable as a seminar barn ("Now you too can make big bucks by over charging companies like Sun to come to motivational meetings 99!"). But the darned noisy, vibrating A/C in the room would obviate the need for magic fingers in the bed if it were not for the fact that your back was sore due to sleeping on a lumpy mattress. Then there was the slight problem that the room was just down from the elevators...

We had dinner atop the main tower in a restaurant called CityScapes or some such. 46 floors above this city by the bay ("Live Nude Girls!"). Other than the fact that all of the food was sauted in wine (is there a winery near SF or something?) it was a pretty good place to eat. And the view wasn't bad either (did I mention "Live Nude Girls" already?).

Oh, I almost forgot. We flew United Airlines on all legs of our trip - HNL to SFO to LAS to LAX back to HNL (see here for those not in the know). And therein lies a story best told by others. Suffice it to say that United deserves everything that is signified by it's ranking (number 5 out of the worst 10) on the U.S. Dept. of Transportation Consumer Complaints listing. Hawaiian Airlines here we come.

Vegas was less than overwhelming. I had not been there in over 10 years and I guess the reality is much less than the hype. Yes, the Venetian, Bellagio, and Paris hotels show you where every one of the billions of dollars were spent in their construction. But still, it's Vegas. A one or two mile strip of sun baked dust in the middle of a desert. Here it is October and the temperatures were still in the mid-90s.

By the way. We stayed at the Luxor hotel. The East Wing. You know, take the underground service tunnel heading in a northerly direction to the hotel tower that looks like any other tinted glass building in Anytown, USA. I guess the rooms in the pyramid are for "high rollers" only. The rest of us hovel in rooms with a view of the next hotel down the road. Actually, all was not bad, the bathroom was very spacious. It had a separate shower big enough for two large sized Hawaiians (or five regular sized Egyptians). The tub, while large, loses marks for not having the equivalent of magic fingers. And polished brass everywhere...But the towels were thread-worn and had holes in them!

I was glad to get back home. Even if its now raining something awful (damn the torpedos, full speed ahead!)...

More when I feel like saying more...

I haven't checked yet, but I doubt that anyone has hit this page yet. And that is probably just as well as I get used to doing this and try to find what is sometimes referred to as a "voice." So far, of the people I read often, Brian comes closest to what I would want this place to be. So, if this looks reeeealy like one of Brian's pages, it's because it is! Thanks Brian. Hope it's OK with you.

On the other hand, I find that Bob's place becomes a bit too polemic for me. Talk about theological discussions. On the other hand, he has great experience in computers and therefore is definetly worth a look see. But you have been warned. [OK. I was wrong. He doesn't usually argue just to argue (usually). But sometimes he does. So be prepared. And I'll say it again, I was wrong - updated 12/20/99].

Of course, my hero is Dr. Jerry Pournelle. Chaos Manor indeed. He does all these strange and wonderful things so we won't have to. Recommended.

And then there is Dr. Keyboard. How does one describe the smell of freshly baked bread? Or the sound of paws impatiently scraping the door in the hopes of a walk through the vines? His diary is what writing is all about. Check it out not only for his knowledge of computers, but also of wine, automobiles, and food (not necessarily in that order).

Vacation Part II. While in SF, we visited the Exploratorium (is that how it's spelled?). I had been there once before at least 10 years ago when visiting a cousin of mine who works for, as the Register calls it, Chipzilla (aka Intel). I was not impressed with it (the Exploratorium, not Intel) then, and I'm not much impressed with it now. Maybe you have to be about 10 years old to appreciate what they have. But I think they need to update some of their exhibits and make sure all of the ones they have on display are working (many had signs saying they were in need of repairs). If you are ever in SF, and you have children, by all means go.

Otherwise, perhaps a trip to the SF Museum of Modern Art would be in order. I think the first Tuesday of each month is when they let everyone in for free and by chance, that was the day we visited. Its multi-leveled and full of the regular, and some not so regular artists that one expects to see in a museum of this size. The main exhibit while we were there was photographs from the NASA Apollo missions to the moon. Terrific stuff that. Makes you wonder why we haven't gone back to the moon since.

The bus can take you to most places in SF and I encourage you to use it. They have day passes that you can use to take any bus anywhere all day. Otherwise parking is expensive when you can find it. Recommended. 'nuf for now.

It's Aloha Friday and the weather is clearing. The roof of our garage, which also acts as a second floor deck, has been leaking for the last six months. I almost got up enough energy, not to mention money, to buy enough roofing sealers and deck top-coats to re-do the roof after getting back from vacation. I say almost because sanity prevailed and I figured the rain would stop. And sure 'nuf, it did!

Vacation Part III This is starting to look like a Bruce Willis series, "Vacation Part XVII, the Vengeance Returns!" See Bruce and his trusty aide Will Smith, kick the butts of Asians/Latinos/Germans/midgets who are bent on stealing all of the money held in the casinos. But I digress. The Las Vegas Hilton has an attraction called "Star Trek, The Experience." As far as I can see, its one of those flight simulators in which you don't actually go anywhere, but due to visual and other special effects, you think you are flying though space. On the advice of the cab driver that took us over there, I decided not to go on the ride but to only check out the "Star Trek, The Experience Shops." There you can purchase everything from communicators to leather jackets with the United Federation of Planets logos on them (I lusted after one of those but $270US was a bit much). I did get a polo shirt, three baseball caps, a key chain, and pin. All for the low, low price of $75US. Such a bargain.

Rumors of a shipping strike continue to circulate here. Voting by longshoremen (as opposed to shortshorewomen?) ends today. So at any point thereafter there could be a shortage of just about everything. There are disadvantages of living on an island two thousand miles from any large land mass. Namely, everything from toilet paper to building materials comes by ship. And since only union members can unload those ships, when they stop work, everyone else eventually stops working.

On the other hand, Hawaii was the first state to have a TV station broadcasting a digital signal. Part of this signal will soon be broadcasting directly to your PC. Welcome to the information age.

More on Monday. Aloha!

Top of the morning to you! Another lost weekend. I went to CompUSA to take a look at a 4X 4X 24X CD-RW drive advertised in the Sunday paper for $129US. Only thing is that by the time I got to the store (around 12:30pm) they were already out of the drive. In fact, the last one was held securely in the arms of a teenager still wearing braces just as I was getting to the empty shelf. Sigh. Well, I guess I'll just have to spend my money in some other meaningful way.

Vacation IV: The Ending OK, so you are probably sick of my ramblings about my vacation. Let it never be said that I don't listen to my tens of readers. End of vacation story.

I need to update some proposed legislation. It will probably be introduced in January when the next session of the Legislature convenes but it needs to be worked on now. It went all the way to conference committee last year but died there. Hence, things may be a bit sparse around these parts this week.

This just in. The shipping strike mentioned last week has been averted by the combined efforts of the longshoremen and the shipping companies (pay raises come easier when profits are up 30% over last year...). So I guess we didn't need those 50 roles of toilet paper after all.

Top of the morning to you! It's Monday. I picked up a Viking USB 56K modem last week to replace a Motorola 28.8 that was being used on Keiki (the PC SWCNBD uses). I think I'm going to like USB. A lot. Disconnect the serial cable for the old modem. Plug in the USB cable for the new. Win98 recognizes that the modem is now connected and asks for the drivers diskette. Pop the diskette in and press enter and Bob's your father's brother. The lights on the modem come on and it's ready to go. Way Cool. BTW, this Viking is the same company that makes memory chips. Recommended.

As soon as I find a good scanner with a USB interface I'll by one (anyone out there with any suggestions?). I don't know if all peripherals will work this well, but so far so good.

No sooner asked than answered! This in from Richard Jobity:

Hi. I got on to your page through a link on http://216.102.91.55/bpages/current.html (BPB Graffiti). Your site makes for great reading, along with the other tech journals, such as Dr. Pournelle's.

I haven't yet heard anyone say bad things about Acer USB scanners. HP, as always, are supposed to be quite reliable. Lot of complaints about Umax, though.
Just my $0.02.

Thanks to Mr. Jobity for the kind words (and to Brian for the mention on his site - hopefully he doesn't regret it!) and information. I've been looking (read that drooling) at HP . But PCMag.net recently did a review of scanners and chose the Visioneer OneTouch 760 and the Epson Perfection 636/636/U. I'll have to check out our local CompUSA and see what they look like. As an aside, it is an honor to be mentioned in the same sentence as Dr. Pournelle. That makes my day!

I figured I might get a response from somebody regarding my misadventures with Linux. And sure 'nuf, this in from my friend Brian. He says:

> So the moral of the story my children is that you can fool some
> of the people all of time, and all of the people some of the time,
> but Linux, as a replacement for Windows, has no clothes.

The faithful would have you drawn and quartered. The pragmatic would say, "OK, then don't use it. Stick with a system subject to viruses and the BSOD and the MS upgrade cycle." The strange (including myself) would stand at the podium at the UN, pounding my shoe on the desk and shouting odd and incoherent things :).

So you purchased and installed Caldera OL2.2, huh? Why back a revision level? The version that has a "good" installation rep is 2.3 (the current rev). I am running RH6.0 (haven't seen a need to upgrade to 6.1), X, KDE, Netscape 4.7, WordPerfect8.0, StarOffice5.1, Apache, Sendmail, etc. On a 233MHz PII, 128K ram, SoundBlaster, Creative Riva TNT 16M, tape backup, cdrom, floppy, 5G HD, of which 2.5 G is in use. It all worked (except for sound) on initial installation. Certainly Linux is not vying for king of the desktop, yet. Yet. But things are improving. I am quite happy with Linux as a desktop environment.

Clearly it is still a YMMV product. But I have not been fooled, and I am happy. --

regards,
Brian Bilbrey

Hey Brian! Lighten up a bit. All I was saying was that Linux, or perhaps more to the point, many applications that run on Linux, put forth as replacements for MS products, are not ready for prime time (not that Win apps are). I think Linux apps will eventually get there. And I hope they get there soon because it's better for everyone when there are two strong applications butting head-to-head. Or as they say; "Competition improves the breed."

But as you noted on your own site, applications such as Netscape lockup on a regular basis under Linux. That's not to say that applications for Windows such as Opera 3.60 (which is the browser I use the most) don't lock up on a regular basis because they do. But again, the point is that applications on Linux do that also. And to the extent that they do, the question becomes why change to something else when you have the same problems?

Is Linux better as a network operating system? I don't know for sure because that's not what I was using it for. People who know more than I on this point say that it is. If so, this is great because it gives competition to Windows NT. But I was looking at it from the standpoint of a desktop OS.

As far as installing 2.2 rather than 2.3. Well, at the time I got it, which is a couple of months ago, that's all there was. I would also note that at the time, it was hailed as the easiest install of all distributions. And after seeing a few other distributions I would agree that it is. Notwithstanding that, KDE, sound support, and kppp did not work out of the box.

Compare this with Win98, which out of the box, had all of those things identified, configured, and running without my having to do anything. Does that make Windows a huge program? Absolutely. Does that mean that Windows is therefore prone to bugs? Absolutely. But the chief alternatives - Linux and MacOS seem to be also.

And while I enjoyed working with Linux as an end in itself, at the end of the day, I still need to get my work done. And frankly, I don't care what operating system I am using to do that (heresy you say!). I just want to get my work done and get out the door at closing time...

So, the bottom line is, if you can get your work done better using Linux than you can using Windows, MacOS, BeOS, etc. then by all means continue to do so! I admire your pioneer attitude and your willingness to take on new challenges. As for me, I hate to have to learn a new operating system only to have similar problems to what I had before (sigh).

Thanks for your views and thanks for taking the time to check out my site. Aloha!

And now Tom weighs in with additional information and views about Linux (does it seem like I'm being daynotes ganged-up on? (grin)). First my email to him and then his response:

-----Original Message-----
From: Dan Seto
Sent: Monday, November 01, 1999 4:31 PM
To: Tom
Subject: Linux and other Sharp Objects

Hey Tom!

I don't get a chance to check out all of the daynote pages so I'm sorry I didn't read your comments on my experiences with Linux until Brian emailed me about it. First, thanks for taking a look at my site. Someday, maybe I will attain the status of the august group known as daynoters. But for now, I just do the best that I can with the time that I have - shuffle shuffle (since I actually have a day job that pays the bills - well, mostly. Bills seem to breed at night faster than I can work...sigh).

And before I start, may I also offer my deepest condolences to the family and friends of Indy car driver Greg Moore. I watched with horror the replays of his shunt. One only hopes that an in-depth finite analysis of the crash will be done and perhaps, changes in the roll cage or other areas of the chassis can be made so that this does not occur again.

With that, I've sharpened my number two pencil and note the following: Linux 2.3 shipped on 9/13/99. I will plead guilty that I was and am not using the latest distribution. But I figured since I've been using 2.2 since at least June of this year (and perhaps earlier, the mind goes as one ages) I should report on that rather than something that just came out. Especially since during the intervening time, I downloaded and installed almost all of the approximately 39 bug fixes and security patches on the Caldera site which gets me at least 90% of the way to 2.3. But you are right, I did not use 2.3 and it could well fix all of the problems noted by me. The reason I haven't "upgraded" (in quotes because there isn't such a thing is there in Caldera Linux? You upgrade by copying your configuration files to another location and then delete everything - or at least that's what Caldera said to do...) is that 2.4 is rumored to be much better and here Real Soon Now. And since I didn't want to get locked in to an endless round of updates, each of which would require more downloading of fixes, I decided to pass on this one.

PR hype aside? Hmmm. I hope you are right when you say that the core Linux community views Linux as an alternative to Windows rather than a replacement. Given the flames coming my way, I'm not so sure that statement is accurate, but I will give them the benefit of the doubt (grin). OK, so if it is an alternative (which obviously it is), how good of an alternative is it? In my experience, not very. At least not yet. As I mentioned to Brian, I sincerely hope that it gets there, and soon. MS, and everyone who uses their products, needs the benefits that can accrue when there is true head-to-head competition. But it would have been a disservice to the tens of readers (you know who you are) of my site to say that StarOffice or WordPerfect 8 for Linux were ready for prime time when clearly they are not.

Finally, someone much wiser than I once said that users don't buy operating systems, they buy applications. In other words, they buy programs that will help them do their memos, spreadsheets, or business presentations. Most people don't give a rodent's derriere (forgive my French) about what OS is best. Just what helps them do their job. And that's all I've been trying to do since the first time I logged into a DEC PDP-11/45 in 1978 to use RunOff so I could write my terms papers...

Thanks again for the mention on your page and keep up the good work!

Greetings Dan, and thanks for the note.

On Greg Moore: I'm not sure the design of modern racing machines can be advanced much more safety wise than they already are. Roll cages are custom tailored to the individual driver, made of titanium, and assembled by the very best in the industry to incredibly exacting specifications and an amazing array of tests. On impact, the cage is designed to separate from the car itself and propel the driver away from the debris of an accident. A CART race has a team of some of the most highly trained physicians in the country seconds away and a helicopter on standby throughout the duration of a race. None of this, however, helped Greg one nit. Driving into a concrete barrier at 350 KM/HR is rarely survivable. Why the barrier was not protected by tires or another shock absorbing device remains to be seen and answered for.

And yes, I know all about bills too. They mutate in the night. I hate it when they do that, but rest assured, Saskatchewan is no different than Hawaii.

Sorry, my friend... I was looking for a topic of discussion and you just happened to be handy on Sunday (g).

Linux 2.3 is a vast improvement over 2.2 when it comes to installation and configuration. So is RH 6.1 compared to 6.0. I wasn't really trying to make excuses for Linux; merely to point out some of the cautions and caveats involved when one elects to go experimenting. Whether kernel 2.4 is "better" or not remains to be seen. Expect it before year's end.

mmm. Core Linux Community. Maybe I overstated my case. The core Linux community tends to be a bit overzealous about their passions. Let me rephrase that: Many of the people I work and communicate with every day who have deep roots in the MS way of thinking and wait eagerly for the day when a true replacement for Windows is here and we once again have a choice. Mmmm. Now I remember why I just said Core Linux Community. It was simpler.

And you are absolutely correct when you mention that people use applications, not operating systems. As a writer I sometime get lost in the underlying structures and loose sight of land. On the other hand, the stability (or lack thereof) of an operating system directly impacts my experience of the applications I'm using. And in the case of Windows 2000, the line between applications and operating system is no longer clear and concise. Which is one reason I have an avid interest in working more with Linux -- the barrier here is still sharp and focused. Which is one of the primary reasons why Linux remains the stable platform it is.

Finally, you are quit right -- WordPerfect for Linux and StarOffice for Linux are NOT ready for prime time. Close, I think, but not there yet. But as I said yesterday, perhaps this is not the best way to use Linux at this stage of it's evolution... And until both the OS and the applications it spawns mature, if you're going to play with Linux, you have to belly up to the bar with a bit of forethought to what you want to drink. How do you get this knowledge? Well, you can spend countless days reading and researching other people's experiences, OR... you can do just what you did -- open the box and find out for yourself. You'll find that most members of the daynotes gang use a mix of both approaches, seasoned to suit individual taste buds.

I could prattle on and on, but I have this screaming baby my wife just thrust in my face, and...

/tom

Quick Notes:
I see that Dr. Pournelle is still working on getting his mailing list sorted out (pun intended). Here's to hoping it works out and he writes a good column about it...

The Jennicam site has some updated photos of their namesake. Be warned that there is some nudity there so don't blame me if you get all bent out of shape (as it were). I can hear the hot headed herds heading her way now...

Other than a couple of charts I need to update, I'm done working on the proposed legislation for next year so I guess I'll see what this week brings.

See you tomorrow!

A bright Hawai'ian morning to you all! It's Tuesday. There's a couple of long discussions about Linux that came in yesterday. They are located above in Monday's notes. If you have the time, check them out.

Of course, a cloud just came over the system and if and when I can get this to the server is in question (sigh). It seems the IT boys are experimenting with adding an Ethernet segment to the WAN. This would be the first such segment since up until lately, this has been a true blue IBM shop. That translates into being a token-ring network topology. Leaving aside debates as to which is the "better" technology, I think its safe to say that the world does seem to be heading in a different direction (read that ethernet). Even IBM seems to have bitten the bullet (just TRY to find a Linux driver for an IBM token ring card).

All during the time I was experimenting with Linux, IBM would refer all inquiries about such a driver to private parties saying that traditionally, in the Linux world, private groups wrote the drivers, not manufacturers. This while IBM flacks were trumpeting to the world that IBM "supported" Linux (big sigh).

A lot of bad things seem to be happening in the world recently. Yesterday was the untimely death of Chicago Bears running back Walter Payton. My condolences to his friends and family. Farewell Sweetness.

On a lighter sports note, the National Basketball Association season begins today with 13 games. Having gone to college in California, I'm always pulling for the Los Angeles Lakers to win another championship. Whether Phil Jackson, formerly of the Chicago Bulls can help them to do that remains to be seen. The glory days of Magic Johnson seem so long ago.

For those who are subscribers to Dr. Jerry Pournelle's site, didn't you think his pictures of his trip to Japan were great? Not in the technical sense, but in giving us a glimpse of what he experienced while there. Worth every penny of the $36US/year to be a subscriber. For those who are not subscribers and have not visited his free site yet, please do so. The more people that go there increases the chances that he will be able to continue to do all those wacky and wonderful things with cutting edge computers and software.

A roller coaster of a morning. But if you are a reader of my page, you heard it here first, seven people killed at 8:08am (HST) in the Xerox building in Honolulu. The gunman was later surrounded by the police several miles from shooting site. ...Very Big Sigh. Welcome to the 20th century.

May they rest in peace. This is indeed a very dark day.

PM Update This very dark day has just gotten darker. We just learned that the husband of one of our employees was one of the seven killed. She is very young and had much to look forward too. While I was merely very sad before, now I am full of sorrow (and anger too).

The events of yesterday are still fresh in the minds of all who work here. And even though I am still sad and angry at the person who did this, I fear that the calls for additional gun control laws will be heard. This, in the state with some of the most onerous (and ludicrous) gun laws in all 50 states. And yet, all the laws man has passed can not stop someone determined to cause harm to others. If it wasn't a gun it would have been a bomb made of diesel oil and fertilizer. Still, it was a very painful and sad day.

Much will be written about this incident. But I will say no more for now other than what an obviously distraught father of the gunman said; "I am gonna bring him another gun so he can shoot himself. I would tell him to shoot himself."

For those who want to read more you can follow this link here. Note that since the link is to the main page, it will probably not be there after today.

On a technical note, I've converted all .gif graphics files on my index page to .jpg, .png, or .mng files. Note that some browsers may not have native support for .png and, as far as I know, absolutely none have support for .mng. So, you will most likely see a lot of empty boxes or broken graphics. If anyone has any better ideas I'm open to suggestions but right now, I can't think of any. Also, if anyone knows of any browser plug-ins that display .mng files that would be of enormous help. Right now, MSIE 5.0 looks like the best browser for viewing my home page (hack, spit, snort) even if it doesn't display .mng files either.

There's a long reply to a short email I sent to Brian yesterday regarding the use of taxes to help those who are less fortunate ("there but for the grace of God..."). Take a few minutes and see what you think (as always, remember the link is correct only for this week). I admire Brian a lot, so pay attention to what he has to say. On the other hand, I respectfully disagree with him.

Below is my email to him. That is followed by my response and then his response back. Interesting stuff, albeit perhaps lengthy. But if anything seems like I'm preaching to anyone, please feel free to checkout the Quick Notes at the bottom of today's diary for other interesting, and less religious things.

Hey Brian!

Just two quick notes. And you don't need to publish this email if you don't want to.

1. The link to Habitat for Humanity came out reading as:

http://216.102.91.55/bpages/www.habitat.org

It should probably be just the www.habitat.org part?

2. Speaking just for myself, and not making any kind of value judgment against anyone, I would just note that I am a Christian. And that Genesis Chapter 4, verse 9 said; "Then the LORD said to Cain, 'Where is Abel your brother?' He said, "I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?" RSV.

While I totally agree with you that we should not be taxed just so that everyone has internet access (which is pure nonsense). I would respectfully disagree with anyone who says that we should not be taxed to feed the starving, or clothe the naked...Because as a Christian, yes, I am my brother's keeper.

In a perfect world, everyone would do what is right on their own and government would not need to get involved (because when it does it screws things up royally). But this is hardly a perfect world...

Aloha

My response was done on this page and then I emailed Brian with a link to it. You can read my response below:

And perhaps this is a good time, to define what I think, a Christian is (exeunt omnes stage left, all those who would be offended). Please note, gentle reader, that many people may call themselves Christians, but just because a pig may call itself United Airlines, doesn't mean he will be making the 7:45 run to Newark anytime soon. Rather, each of us is what we do. Not what we say we do or are.

And in today's time, it always seems to come down to money (I think it was Mr. Gecko that said; "Greed, for want of a better word, is good"). And yet, the more someone loves money, the harder it is to be a Christian (1st Timothy, chapter 6, verse 10: "For the love of money is the root of all evils; it is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced their hearts with many pangs."-RSV). Note that it says the love of money, not money itself. Money is a piece of paper that two parties agree has some worth to them.

But rather it is the love of money, over anything else, that makes it "...easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." (Luke 18:25 RSV). Does that mean all Christians must give away all of their money? No, just the ones that love it more than anything else. All God asked of us is to "...render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." (Luke 20:25). So pay your taxes to Caesar, and return a portion of what God has helped you to earn to Him as a tithe. Other than that, you are free to do what you wish with your money.

So, do you need to stand on the street corner preaching the gospel to be a Christian? Hardly. Preaching is a calling that few should attempt. Especially those charlatans on TV whose main function in life is to extract as much money (there's that word again) from you as possible.

Well, what about giving the beggar $5US so they can go and buy more drugs? Absolutely not. That is not taking care of your brother. But paying your taxes so a well run, effective, anti-drug program can help get him on his feet (and reduce the possibility that he will break into your car and steal your cell phone)? Absolutely.

Notice, dear friends (ramp up the sound of the organ here) that you do not need to be a Christian to do these things. Enlightened self-interest should be enough (if the drug addict is "cured", then he probably won't steal from you). But to say I will not pay my taxes become some people will misuse or waste it? No.

The "cure" for that is eternal vigilance of how your money is spent. And that means more that just voting no on everything. That's the easy way out. What it does mean is taking the time to evaluate the programs yourself. And then supporting the ones that work and not supporting the ones that don't.

I see so much hatred in the world. Because someone hated what he was doing he killed seven people. People with wives and children. People who tried to live a good life. And yet one person, filled with hate, ended all that. In the end, the most important lesson of Christianity is that we should love others as much as we love ourselves...

OK. Enough of this stuff. While the title of this diary is Misc. Ramblings, sometimes I think I ramble too far.

Peace and love to you.

Brian came back with the following email:

Dan - A couple of points

1. It is polite to respond directly, and perhaps also publish. If I am in a rush, I am not going to the site, I read my email and move on.

2. I don't see where fundamentally (pun not intended) we actually disagree. But, you do lose me if you quote bible at me. By that, I mean lose me. I don't visit sites that preach, and quoting bible is preaching (by my lights). I don't think you have done any wrong - I just choose not to listen to that mode.

It is your site and you should do what you want - but what you write defines your audience.

Interesting blend, though, references to the Bible, and to Jennicam, all on the same page. Best wishes.

brian.

To which I responded with:

Brian,

1. Thanks for the instructions on netiquette. I thought it was impolite to send huge files back and forth so I figured it would be better to just link to it and give you a heads up that it was there. My error. I will not do it again.

2. I'm sorry you think what I put up is preaching because by your definition, everything that you wrote about Linux is preaching (smile). I am not trying to preach to anyone. I am just trying to express my opinions on the subject. How to do that without quoting the Bible is beyond me. If there is a way to do that, please let me know. It's sort of like trying to explain Zen flower arranging without quoting the Buddha. And I am truly sorry I lost you by quoting the Bible. Some of the wisest sayings in all of history, regardless of your religiosity are there...

3. I agree that what you write defines your audience. What I want is an audience wider than just computer enthusiasts. Not that computer enthusiasts, whether Linux, Unix (which the is the first operating system I used in 1978), etc. aren't interesting people. Put there's more to life than just computers (I will be adding a link to a LA Times article on education and one to Minnesota Governor Ventura's State of the State speech).

Maybe this is just a reaction to what happened in the Xerox building a mile away...It tends to make you think about the big questions in life...sigh

But thanks for your comments. They are appreciated.

Aloha

Quick Notes
Interesting article in the Los Angeles Times regarding what is being described as the most dysfunctional school system in America. No wonder Johnny can't read.

Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura's State of the State speech is found here. I urge you to read it for the sense of optimism he portrays because he knows that if people get involved, we will not fail to make things better.

Dan,

Don't worry about using 2.2. I have that same version, for the same reason, I got it when it was hot, and I am struggling with it as well.

When every thing in your box is recognized it is plain sailing. If however the installation stumbles over something you end up in ( endproduct of digestion ). This is no different in Windows, I have at least two boxes here where I cannot get Win9x installed because the installation just crashes (95) or hangs (98).

If you have unsupported hardware Windows is very likely to have a working default for it, for example standard 16 colour VGA. Which works but is not satisfactory and you cannot go in and tweak settings, you have to get the correct driver somehow.

With Linux things are a bit different. Linux itself (the kernel) is almost surely to work but maybe you don't get X windows running using the defaults. This can 'easily' be corrected from a command-line so even if the silly X-manager is too dumb to present some workable default you can pull one yourself. Of course if a stupid installation program insists on starting some X stuff at boot up even when X is not configured you have a problem. Back in (biowaste).

I installed Linux (first 1.3 and later 2.2 from Caldera) on Hinja without problem, well almost. Now with Aria I have a problem. The difference : Hinja has a well known graphic card (Matrox) while Aria has a nameless S3 based cheapskate board.

Don't give up easy is all I can say. And of course don't experiment on a production machine.

Regards,
Svenson

My response back to him is below:

Sjon,

Thanks for the email and stopping by the site. Your email list many good points.

But I haven't given up on Linux. I truly believe that Windows needs competition because it will force both Windows and Linux to improve. I just don't have a machine I can use it on right now. Kane, my production PC is hands off. And even though I talked about installing Win2000 on it on Feb 17, I probably won't actually do that ("Never be the first in something new nor the last in something old...").

Keiki, my wife's (She Who Cannot Be Denied) PC had Linux, but she wanted it back. This after only using it for about six months. Some people just are not grateful for what I do (grin).

And finally, Mo'opuna, is kind of in limbo right now. I could use it I guess as a Linux box, but I think the parts that are in it would probably cause all kinds of problems. So maybe I should buy new parts and build a new one! Yes, that sound like fun. Now if only I can find some money to do that. Any ideas? Other than robbing a bank of course...

But I do plan, when Linux 2.4 with USB (way cool) support comes out I will get a copy and try again. Now if StarOffice or WordPerfect for Linux can get their acts together...

Aloha,

And now back to an earlier topic. John has some thoughts on "helping your fellow man". He writes:

Hi Dan

Use what ever reference material you want to aid in you discussion of your topics of choice. I find it just adds to the character of the page as well as tells me a bit about yourself.

As for the "helping your fellow man" bit I have the following to add. In some other countries the people we are trying to help are in the situation they are because the industrialized nations either took over their countries economy or their government wants to be more powerful in the world so forces the western economic model upon the country ( I realize this does not explain all circumstances, but it sets things up for the point I want to make). This has caused peoples that where once nomads etc. into what is a foreign lifestyle for them. This change in social structure is not easy to take and the social structure they are used to does not mix well with what is being forced upon them. Take for instance a once nomadic people who are forced into farming. As nomads it did not matter where they chose to defecate as they were not in the same place for long. Now they still defecate 20 feet from what once was a camp but is now a permanent home. The water gets fowled, and they do not understand what the big deal is when the aid workers tell them that they must go some distance form their home, dig a hole and only defecate in the hole.

What this all boils down to is that my point is that many peoples will never move beyond their current situation ( which may not be of their choosing ) till they can learn to adapt to the new situation which is very difficult to do. It may not be these people fault the they are in the position they are in, but until they can start to help themselves, all the help we can give them does very little for them. This I realize is very harsh, but it is a part of the reality of the world we live in.

Old world ways rarely work in an modern world, the old must make way for the new. Thus merely feeding the starving is not enough. More weight must be put on helping the people adapt to new ways of life and supporting themselves. I try to support education in all forms, but do not support feeding a starving man without providing a way for him help himself from starving or poisoning his own fresh water supply.

I probably have opened a dozen more points of debate trying to express a point of view.

Now that I think for a moment I believe my point follows in line with the point that you and Brian both made that you do not give $5 to a beggar who says he wants to buy food when you know full well that he will buy booze or drugs. Oh well this has been burning in the back of my mind all day and I had to get it out. If it does if nothing else it shows a view of what is happening in countries other than out own.

Regards
John

To which I replied:

John,

Thanks for the email. But I'm in what Dr. Pournelle calls "short shrift" mode right now. And in either case, I'm not sure I'm the most qualified person to respond. But I will note a few things below because you make some very important points.

I will echo what you say about the effects one culture can have on another when that culture is imposed on another. As always, there are both good and bad effects when that happens. And sometimes, the culture imposing the change does not even realize it is doing so. OTOH, many times it does and it is doing so on purpose. Leaving aside the debate on whether this is moral or not, everyone at least needs to be aware of the effects.

When these effects are made apparent, then as you state, the culture has some decisions to make. Do they try to adapt or do they try to resist, or do they try to flee, or do they just try to ignore the changes? The answer to that question varies as to the particular circumstances that the culture is in at the time. For example, these are the choices that faced the Hawai'ian nation when certain US businessmen decided that, with the force of US Marines, they would annex the islands and depose the sovereign queen. Some Hawai'ians advocated armed resistance. But in the end, the queen chose non-violent resistance and requested that the Congress and the President of the United States restore her kingdom. While there was some support by the President to do this, Congress did not. The rest, as they say is history.

The effects of that culture change is that we Hawai'ians have the worst health, are over represented in prisons, and under represented in the University of Hawai'i. OTOH, we are in the midst of a cultural revival which, if unchecked, will have far reaching effects of its own. But that is a story best left for another time.

Thanks again for your thoughts and understanding. You make some good points to ponder on.

Aloha

Isn't it great to live in a country in which the exchange of ideas is free and open? I am so impressed by the level of discourse that has occurred so far and am looking forward to more in the future. I hope it has been of some interest to my gentle readers. But, as is the case with some, you have thoughts on how to improve or correct my feeble attempt at writing, please feel free to let me know! As promised at the beginning of this quest, all emails will be responded to. And the check is in the mail. Objects are bigger than they appear. Your mileage may vary. The dog ate my diskette.

Have a Good Weekend

Monday Sports Update: The University of Hawai'i Rainbow Warrior Football team won their game this weekend against San Jose State 62 to 41. The score looks more lopsided than it was. Going into the third quarter it was something like 34 to 7. Obviously, a lot of scoring took place in the last quarter. On both sides. The next game, against Fresno State could determine who is the WAC champion. Stay tuned.

Not doing as well is the Hawaii America's Cup Team Abracadabra2000. In the second round, they are 9th out of 11 teams with a 4 and 8 record overall. Prada is still number 1 with a perfect 12 and zero record.

So the Judge has spoken. And while I can hear the Libertarians out there (you know who you are, all ten of you) saying; "Woe is me, woe is me. The government has gotten it wrong again." I would respectfully disagree. The Judge got it exactly right.

The problem, as I see, it is that once a company gets into a monopoly position it's too late to do anything constructive. It's hard to see how the breakup of the telephone, oil, or transportation companies helped consumers. Service is lower while costs are higher. Benefit analysis would call that a losing position.

One can only hope that there will be a last ditch effort to settle (not a high probability) out of court. If that fails, then it comes down to what "remedy" the court comes up with. I'm not going to try to predict what that would be, but whatever it is, it will probably result in higher prices (sigh).

As background, monopolies are a natural progression for companies because it maximizes profits. That is, if you control the supply, you can charge whatever you want. Hence, we should not get all evangelical about it when it happens. It happened in this case, and it will happen in others (e.g. cable companies). The question is, what role, if anything, does government have in these situations?

As a Democrat, I would say the role is to maximize competition where it makes sense. Obviously, there are some advantages to an environment dominated by one company. There tends to be stability since everyone knows what standard to write programs to. Conversely, a dynamic environment in which things are constantly changing tends to create outcomes that are creative and more in tune with what people want.

So, where is that line between stability and change as it relates to Microsoft? Well, as I said above, it probably too late to do something constructive that will foster true competition while as the same time not destroy a company that has created some programs that are good enough for the rest of us. So I would say, separate IE5.0 from Windows. Separate Windows from DOS. And we would be close to where we were before Win95 came out.

The question is, is that better than where we are now? That, you'll have to decide.

This email is dated Thursday, but I didn't get it until today (really, I'm not kidding. Maybe not enough postage or something).

Dan:

I've enjoyed reading your "Misc. Ramblings" for some time and enjoy your style but had not chosen to send you any comments until now. I very much enjoyed reading your thoughts on what a Christian is and find myself agreeing with you. I thought it was a well written description with appropriate bible verses. I'm sorry Brian was put off by the quotes from the Bible but how can you describe what Christians are without quoting from the Bible? I found your site through Brian's and enjoy reading his site but don't agree with his opinion here. Of course that is what makes this interesting, the free exchange of ideas which you don't have to agree with.

It does make for some variety.

Keep up the good work, I'll keep checking in. May God bless you richly.

Jim Crider
www.docjim.com

My response back was:

Thanks Jim. All words of encouragement are gratefully accepted. All others are sent to the appropriate garbage can (grin). But seriously, I'm just doing the best that I can and I am sorry if I offend anyone. But I do have certain beliefs, and I will not hide those beliefs. That does not mean I will hit people over the head and try to convert everyone. On the other hand, I'm not going to hide who I am either.

Thanks again for the kind words.

Aloha

I think that pretty much says it all so I will probably not bring this subject up again. At least in the near future anyway.

I wrote my thoughts above on the Microsoft findings of fact before going over to Byte to read Dr. Pournelle's and Byte Editor Paul Schindler's comments on the decision. After which, I re-read my thoughts and decided to leave them as is. I would note that both commentators seem to begrudgingly admit that, yes Virginia, Microsoft is a monopoly. I guess their concern is how the Judge came to that conclusion and what that means in the future. In that, I share their concern.

Have a good Monday!

All systems are go. Err. Almost. Our IT Division still has to bring up Internet connectivity. So, if this doesn't hit the wires at the appointed time it's not MY fault. Really. It's not. <g>.

So Charles Schultz is hanging up his pen today. And while others lament how he is no longer relevant to the present day, I say that to the extent that is true is the extent of our own loss. His character Charlie Brown had a quiet determination that we should all emulate. I can't speak for others, but as for myself, I think a giant has fallen. Good Grief. Long live "Peanuts"!

Hmmm. Connectivity is back and a check of my email finds *nothing*. Hmmm. Me thinks things are still not right in emailsville. Oh well, stiff upper lip old chum. Matt! Matt!

BlackICE detected a failed TCP/IP scan of my ports at home. I sent off the logs to abuse@rr.com. Actually, I first sent it to support@kc.rr.com since since that's were the attack originated but KC responded and said to send it to the other address. I wonder if rr.com is trying to overtake AOL as the home of the lame (and I say this as a new user of rr.hawaii.com or is it hawaii.rr.com)? Soon after that attack, BlackICE erroneously, as it turned out, logged several attacks it called something like failure to set filter error. A quick check with BlackICE found that this was a false positive and that the latest version, 1.9.4 corrected this. So remember, keep your software updated.

***** Noon Update *****

A quick check of the other Daynoters finds that they are indeed in a philosophical mood. If you are offended by such discussions, do not go there and do not read what is below. If not, check out Dr. Pournelle (see it here now or here later) and [Sorry. Dr. Keyboard has moved his site and this page is missing in action - Ed.] Dr. Keyboard. Not being an Intellectual Giant® like these two, I can only say that Dr. Pournelle appears to be saying, if there is no God, then what is the meaning of life? And Dr. Keyboard seems to say there may not be any. If Dr. Keyboard is right, then the concept of purpose becomes a very slippery thing.

No one, except God, can peer into the souls of humankind and see what lives there. And I won't even try. But I think each of us, who has a sense of right or wrong, came by that sense by being taught it. That is, I don't think there is a genetic coding for knowing right from wrong. We have to learn it and we have do right (if for no other reason other than in the long run, it is in our own best self-interest).

What does seem to be hard coded is a need for direction or meaning and stability in our lives. The noted psychologist, Maslow seems to indicate that before we could move up the ladder to self-actualization, we had to build a stable base that first satisfied the more immediate needs.

But to get back to the original premise, if we need to be taught right from wrong, who is qualified to do that and what is it should we be taught? I will leave for another time who is qualified to teach and concentrate on the what should be taught.

While acknowledging the work of anthropology in our understanding of cultural bias, Christianity seems to say that there are certain self-evident truths. And that these truths span boundaries and cultures. The basis of which is a love and respect for God and our fellow human beings.

If one does not believe in God and the basis for His commandments, then what does one believe in? It seems to me that without the unifying force of Christianity, one can believe in anything they want without anyone having any authority to say otherwise. This path is indeed a very steep, slippery slope. There is no right or wrong without some authority to make it so.

However, does that mean a non-Christian can not lead a moral life? No. One can indeed lead a moral life, by any definition, and not be a Christian. But what if we Christians are right? That there is God in heaven and that He did tell us what is right and wrong and that further; He gave us the option to choose which to follow? And that to make up for our failed attempts at being moral, He sent His Son to die for our transgressions?

The power of Christianity lays in its truth. Whether others acknowledge that truth does not make it less powerful and just because others would believe otherwise does not make it so.

I have great respect and aloha for Dr. Keyboard, but I respectfully disagree with his saying that God does not exist and is instead a construct dreamt up by superstitious fuzzy thinking dweebs. On the other hand, even if Dr. Keyboard were right, even he admits that the world would be a better place for people who follow God's commandments.

Sheesh. Enough of this. You decide who/what is right and follow that.

Oh. By the way. All of our drives spun up fine from their short sleep over the weekend. No reports of bad things happening anywhere on our network. No stiction here. Phantom Menace indeed.

Aloha!

History. This is Black History Month. And on this day, in 1960, four Black students sat down at a Greensboro, N. Carolina lunch counter for a cup of coffee. It is a sad commentary that, that event was worthy of a making the news. See the New York Times (you have to register first) article about that day here.

ET, Call Home. Well, you didn't think I was going to ignore this story did you? Evidence is growing that the Mars lander is at least alive, if not well. Stanford University announced picking up a very faint signal last week. This week, observatories in England, Italy, and the Netherlands join the hunt. However, NASA is saying that even if contact is made, it is doubtful that any meaningful experiments could be conducted at this point. See the story here (this is also from the NY Times so you need to register).

Hollywood Buzz II. First it was the movie "Pearl Harbor" coming in April to spend $130 million USD to film. Next up is "Windtalkers." This one stars Nicolas Cage and is about the how the US, in WWII, used Navajo Indians to send messages coded in their language. A language, that they say, was known only by the Navajo and a handful of others. The locations here will be used to stand in for Saipan. It is amazing that Hawai'i has enough different environments to stand in for everything from Africa (see "Mighty Joe Young") to South America (see "Raiders of the Lost Ark") to Jurassic Park.

Emergency Yikes! All systems stop! Full emergency reverse! What a way to wake up in the morning! My friend Bo Leuf got my heart jump started this morning with his comments about my note on the Illinois moratorium on executions yesterday (see above). Let me clarify by copying my email to him this morning:

From: Dan Seto
To: Bo Leuf
Subject: Illinois
Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2000 08:01:18 -1000

"Yes indeed, when a state executes 25 convicts and later finds 13 of these executions "in error", some form of Quality Control in the judicial process seems highly overdue."

Yikes! Actually, what I was saying (I think) was that of the last 25 people sentenced to die, over half had their convictions overturned before the sentence was carried out. Slightly different meaning from having them dead, then finding out, oops, sorry - made a slight mistake. So sorry. Carry on then.

Sorry for any confusion on my part!

***** Noon Update *****

Back-Channel Backed-Up. I think I need to get some industrial strength drain cleaner and apply it liberally to both the Daynotes mail server and my host site. I tried sending an email this morning to the gang and had it bounced back:

Return-Path: [postmaster@itool.com]
Delivered-To: pop1642544@mail-10
Received: from 207.113.118.44 (mail.itool.com [207.113.118.44])
by mail.9netave.com (8.9.3/8.8.8) with SMTP id NAA00140
for [Dan]; Tue, 1 Feb 2000 13:34:37 -0500 (EST)
From: postmaster at someplace called itool.com
Message-Id: [200002011834.NAA00140@mail.9netave.com]
Received: by mx1.itool.com
for [Dan]
id msg_7c71334d-d8cd-11d3-80a8-0090274ea2ee; Tue, 01 Feb 2000 11:29:06 -0700
Received: by mx1.itool.com
for Dan id msg_7c713343-d8cd-11d3-80a8-0090274ea2ee; Tue, 01 Feb 2000 11:28:42 -0700
X-Sender: postmaster at someplace called itool.com
X-Mailer: APPS IToolMail Version 2.0
To: Dan
Subject: Undeliverable Mail Error
Date: Tue, 01 Feb 2000 11:28:42 -0700

Sometimes things work, and sometimes they don't. As I don't have control over either mail server I can say it wasn't me that done it. But then, I can't fix it either. To Tom/Matt: That's why we cc: people. We know the list fails sometimes and sometimes it's probably our own mail servers. Either way, the mail must go through.

Aloha!

Over the Hump. OK, my PC is about 90% back to what it was before. I do not know why Windows blew up. It had been acting strangely for about a week or two. By that I mean disk I/O slowed to a crawl. Strange error messages about insufficient SPs. Random GPFs of kernel32. And, when I went to reload Win98SE, it said that there appeared to be a disk compression program installed and therefore it would not install.

I assume this last error is related to my earlier experiments with PhatLinux. To recap, PhatLinux appears to use a system similar to what disk compression programs use to create a virtual drive that lives in one huge file. As far as DOS is concerned, it's just another file. But within that file, PhatLinux lives in its own partition. I tried deleting the directory and then re-installing Win98 but it still gave the same error. The last thing I tried was doing a fdisk /mbr. But that didn't work either. So, I ended up formating my C: drive. Fortunately, all of my data resides on D: and, as a backup, on one of our Novell network volumes. Still, I had to reload all of my current applications. Which, for the most part, I've done.

Even though PhatLinux probably didn't cause the root problem (pun intended), it made it more difficult to recover. So, I don't think I'll play with it anymore.

Onward and Upward. Mililani Trask, Office of Hawai'ian Affairs Trustee, is calling for acts of civil disobedience in the form of sit-ins/marches to close down the airports and harbors. I should note that Trask is perhaps the most, how should I put it, outspoken, of the trustees. I doubt most people will listen to her but I thought it would be interesting to note what she is saying. But then again, maybe not.

Merge This. Cap Gemini SA announced agreement to acquire Ernst & Young's consulting business for a reported $11.1 billion USD in cash and stock. Cap Gemini is Europe's biggest computer services company.

Over and Almost Out. Race four of the best of nine America's Cup yachting race ended the same way the first three did. New Zealand comfortably ahead. Today's race (HST) could close the series out if the Kiwi's Black Magic wins.

Oh. By the way. The Lakers beat the Trail Blazers, 90-87 to take sole possession of first place in the National Basketball League. Sorry Doc.

Aloha!

73 seconds to the end. At 0.678 seconds into the flight a puff of smoke is recorded jetting from the aft field joint of the right solid rocket booster.

71 seconds to the end. Cameras record eight more puffs of smoke emanating from the joint. The color of the smoke suggests the grease, joint insulation, and rubber O-rings are being burned and eroded by the intense heat of the burning propellant.

36 seconds to the end. The craft encounters the first of several high altitude wind shears. The wind shears cause relatively large deflections of the vehicle. These deflections are automatically countered by the guidance, navigation, and control systems of the engines. The number and intensity of the corrections recorded set new records for flights to that time.

15 seconds to the end. The main engines throttle up to 104 percent of their rated capacity. At this time, the first flickering flames coming from the solid rocket booster joint can be seen.

14 seconds to the end. The flame becomes a defined plume and the pressure sensors in the booster now detect a differential between the left and right booster. This is the first telemetry data confirming a leak is occurring.

9 seconds to the end. The flames suddenly change in shape and color as they breach the external fuel tank and begin burning the hydrogen therein. Telemetry from the fuel tank confirms a leak.

1 second to the end. The lower strut linking the Solid Rocket Booster and the External Tank is severed or pulled away from the weakened hydrogen tank permitting the right Solid Rocket Booster to rotate around the upper attachment strut. This rotation is indicated by divergent yaw and pitch rates between the left and right Solid Rocket Boosters.

0.88 seconds to the end. A circumferential white vapor pattern is observed blooming from the side of the External Tank bottom dome. This is the beginning of the structural failure of hydrogen tank that culminated in the entire aft dome dropping away. This releases massive amounts of liquid hydrogen from the tank and creates a sudden forward thrust of about 2.8 million pounds, pushing the hydrogen tank upward into the intertank structure. At about the same time, the rotating right Solid Rocket Booster impacts the intertank structure and the lower part of the liquid oxygen tank.

0.86 seconds to the end. White vapors appear in the intertank region. Within milliseconds there is a massive, almost explosive, burning of the hydrogen streaming from the failed tank bottom and liquid oxygen breach in the area of the intertank. At this point in its trajectory, while traveling at a Mach number of 1.92 at an altitude of 46,000 feet, the vehicle is totally enveloped in the explosive burn.

The end. The reaction control system ruptures and a hypergolic burn of its propellants occurs as it exits the oxygen-hydrogen flames. The reddish brown colors of the hypergolic fuel burn are visible on the edge of the main fireball. The vehicle, under severe aerodynamic loads, breaks into several large sections which emerge from the fireball. Separate sections that can be identified on film include the main engine/tail section with the engines still burning, one wing of the vehicle, and the forward fuselage trailing a mass of umbilical lines pulled loose from the payload bay.

NASA Space Shuttle Challenger Crew on January 28, 1986

• Francis R. Scobee, Commander
• Michael J. Smith, Pilot
• Judith A. Resnik, Mission Specialist 1
• Ellison S. Onizuka, Mission Specialist 2
• Ronald E. McNair, Mission Specialist 3
• Gregory B. Jarvis, Payload Specialist 1
• Sharon Christa McAuliffe, Payload Specialist 2

May they rest in peace. Aloha!

Actually, now that fellow Daynoter Phil does occasional longer posts, I don't know if he has relinquished his title of Man of Few Words. But not much of interest is going on over here in the Seto Shack.

However, there are a couple of sports events in town this weekend. First up is the American style football Hula Bowl (see the site here) on Saturday on the island of Mau'i. It will be broadcast on ESPN at 9:00 p.m. (EST).

The second is the National Football League Pro Bowl (see their site here) on Sunday, ABC 5:30 p.m. EST.

On the other hand, school work has heated up a bit as we try to gather information about how other states handle their retirement systems. My eleven loyal readers know that I am in my last semester working on a Masters in Public Administration. Our final paper is a group effort to help the Hawai'i Employees Retirement System increase operational efficiency.

Right now, we're contacting other state systems as well as starting to contact local state agencies that have dealings with the system.

Speaking of graduating, it's amazing how much it costs. You pay $15USD for a diploma, $55 for a cap and gown, $25 for a hood (that colorful piece of material that hangs around the neck and kind of reminds me of a woolen muffler). Then there's the announcements ($1.35 a piece) and thank you cards ($7.50 per 10). And for the high rollers, a custom matted frame for the diploma starting at $105 and going up over $200. Now if I can only graduate.

Speaking of working in groups, it's interesting they work, or don't work as the case may be. In my first year, we had a class in which we were given a test. The test was a list of about 10 questions dealing with surviving in a mountainous region during the Winter. After answering the questions on paper, we broke into groups and tried to combine the expertise of each group member to come up with a list of answers to the same questions.

The point of the exercise was to show that by pooling the experience/education/knowledge of the group, you would come up with more right answers than you did by taking the test relying only on your own knowledge. Well, you can probably guess the outcome of my group. I scored significantly higher on my individual test than our group did collectively. Now, perhaps this is an indication that I was not very persuasive in getting my group members to believe I had the right answers.

Or perhaps there are situations in which the expected synergy does not occur (see just about any of the current NASA projects). But in any case, all that I learned from that experience was that I should probably rely more on myself than others.

Such seems to be the case in the group I am in now. To me, our task is well defined and doable. If I were assigned to do this at work, I would be able to complete it, by myself, in about three months. But with this group, we will be lucky if it's done in six. And when it is done, the quality will be much lower than if I did it myself. Now, I realize this may sound arrogant and self-centered, but it also happens to be the objective truth.

If it is the reality, I am not encouraged by this because committees are how everyone in large agencies seem to organize themselves to solve problems. While I understand and support the assertion that problem solving should include the stakeholders involved, I'm not so sure relying solely on their input and judgment will result in the optimal solution.

In fact, I wonder if it almost guarantees it won't. It seems to me committees, more often than not, end up being a waste of time and resources. But perhaps I am being too harsh. Perhaps the problem is most committees are not led by people trained in facilitating meetings so the meetings do not stay focussed or disciplined. Or perhaps its something else.

Whichever the case, the next few months will be very frustrating for me. But regardless of how others seem to have problems figuring out what to do, I know what my tasks are and I will remain focused on accomplishing those tasks.

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!

As I got home this morning my wife was watching something on TV. It looked like a shot of a meteor streaking across the sky. I didn't think much of it until she told me it was a NASA shuttle breaking up.

To say I was stunned would be the understatment of the year. All I can say is our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the crew and I hope they understand that their loss was not in vain. That the struggle to explore and work in space is frought with danger. That the only way to pave smooth that road is to boldly go forward to overcome the challenges that lay there.

To close, I heard the words of the old Simon and Garfunkle song "Homeward Bound" echoing in my head while I watched the news conference from NASA. To have gove so far. To have "touched the face of God." And then to perish while so close to home. Homeward bound.

Tonight I'll sing my songs again,
I'll play the game and pretend.
But all my words come back to me in shades of mediocrity
Like emptiness in harmony I need someone to comfort me.
Homeward bound,
I wish I was,
Homeward bound,
Home where my thought's escaping,
Home where my music's playing,
Home where my love lies waiting
Silently for me.
Silently for me.

Aloha

Catastrophic engineering failures tend to follow certain critical paths. One path is multiple failures, which each alone would not cause the catastrophe, but in combination, in a specific sequence, under specific conditions can lead to the failure. This is sometimes known as the cascade effect.

While it is certainly too early to speculate on what caused the Columbia failure, I would not be surprised if it isn't a series of events that may have occurred before, but not in the sequence, or to the extent, required for the failure.

I would not be surprised that the failure began earlier than NASA thinks it may have.

I would also not be surprised if some of it is related to the low level of funding NASA has endured over the last 20 years or so.

Whichever the case, the investigations will begin, reams of reports will be made, and I hope, the shuttle or its replacements will fly again.

Aloha!

I took the day off yesterday to complete some additional medical tests. This after spending some time at the clinic being poked, prodded and x-rayed on Saturday. I've seen the blood suckers so many times I'm almost beginning to know them by first name. Even the CAT scan guy already knows my face and recognizes me every time I come in.

I'm not sure if this is a Good Thing or not but I guess it beats the alternative.

Otherwise, I'm still recovering from the cold that will not die and still working on contacting the various people I need to talk to about my capstone project relating to the employees retirement system.

Aloha!

Not much new going on around here today so why not a short rant? Are you able to increase your salary in anticipation of being busy? Do you raise your price when you think your time will be in short supply? I guess you could if you owned your own business or their wasn't any competition.

So I guess I shouldn't be surprised that a gallon of "supreme" gasoline is just under $2.00USD. This, in anticipation of short supplies. Don't you just love monopolies?

In other local news, our governor went out on a limb this weekend and refused to increase the threat level indicator. Even though the federal government went from "yellow" to "orange" (the second highest level), the governor felt it would be counter productive since no specific threat is known, or at least publicly released. Hence, the state, unlike the feds, will not run in circles trying to catch its own tail.

On the labor front, our union is officially at impasse with the state. If nothing is settled by the end of June, we will need to take a strike vote and see where that may lead. While I am not looking forward to it, I think it may be necessary to strike. Just in case, I'm now beginning to save, rather than spend so no new toys for me until after June. I guess the economy will just have to struggle on without me spending my copious amounts of cash.

And finally, I'm almost to where I want to be with the look of this page. I still want to tweak the CSS in a couple of places and I want to research if there is a way of having replies to comments, via email, be automatically entered into the system. Right now, the system notifies me vie email when a comment is left by someone, but if I reply to the email, my reply, as far as I know, has to be copied and pasted into the comments. Surely there must be a better way of doing this?

Aloha!

Move over Dirty Harry, there's a new big gun in town. Smith & Wesson unveiled their 0.50-caliber magnum revolver recently (see it here). Billed as the most powerful production revolver in the world (there are various other makes that chamber rifle rounds, or cut down versions of rifle rounds) it has 2,600 ft/lbs of muzzle energy. So, do you feel lucky? Well, do ya?

The posts for today will have something in common - they will all be obvious to everyone except, it seems, to those involved.

First Saddam, then France. The morning papers says the European Union (EU) is giving Saddam Hussein al-Majd al-Tikriti "one last chance." Until, of course, the next time. Then they'll really, really mean it.

As British Prime Minister Tony Blair put it:

If Iraq is not cooperating fully and everyone accepts they are not cooperating, why is Iraq not then in material breach?

Almost anything, taken to extremes is not a Good Thing. For example, some people refuse to think of themselves as being part of a community because it may imply taking responsibility for more than just yourself ("Am I my brother's keeper?").

So it should not be surprising that the Catherine "Kitty" Genovese syndrome (see one account here) should be repeated, over and over again.

The most recent incident made the headlines over the weekend. A man was shot at a Washington, D.C, area gas station. Sadly, this is not the part that has thoughtful people in a rage. There's more (see the story here).

After the shooting, one witness -- who was just feet away from the gunman -- looked for a moment at Price's body and then turned away. Not only did he finish pumping his kerosene, but the man paid for the purchase and drove off...

For the next few minutes, the [video security] camera records a series of cars pulling away from the station, with at least one new car pulling up to the kerosene pump where Price lay. But it is not until about 9:13, more than three minutes after the shooting, that the gas station's manager is seen approaching the body.

It seem obvious that when someone is shot, and you are in a position to at least notify the police or call an ambulance, that you would do so. But I guess that's not obvious to the people there.

Small things are important. Sometimes they're critical - especially if you are getting an organ transplant. Ask the teenager from Mexico who came to Duke University Hospital to be healed through a heart and lung transplant. Only, people weren't paying attention to the small things - like matching the blood type from the donor to the teenager. After waiting three years for the life saving operation, she is now is near death due to the obvious error. Obvious, that is, except to everyone there.

If we've learned nothing else over the years, know this: Just because something is obvious does not mean people will perceive it, acknowledge it, and then appropriately attend to it. If anything, they will do just the opposite. So it's up to us to point out the obvious, get people to acknowledge it, and then act on it. Because if we don't, it is obvious that no one will.

Aloha!

The home court advantage is more than just an idle phrase. While I can't say it applies to every sport in the world, it does seem to fit most. So when the home team doesn't win you have to wonder if they are up to the challenge. So far, for a series in which it appears the boats are even in speed, we have seen what I can only describe as extreme sailing.

Due to the long weekend in the US, I was able to watch live the second and third races of the America's Cup yacht race (and parts of the first race on tape) being held in the beautiful waters of New Zealand. As of this writing, with the fourth race scheduled for this afternoon, Hawai'i time, the Swiss Alinghi (see their site here) team is leading three to zero, needing to win only two of the last six races to win the series. Or to put it another way, Team New Zealand (see their site here) needs to win five of the next six to win - something no team in the history of the cup has done.

The first twelve minutes of race one looked like it was the start of an exciting series. Neither boat appeared to have a commanding speed difference which means tactics, experience, readiness, and a bit of luck could decide the series.

Unfortunately for the NZ boat, they seemed to be in short supply of all of the above. For some strange reason, they ran their boat heeled so far over that water constantly entered the boat. So much so that they could not pump it out as fast as it was coming in. Why they felt they should angle their deck so much is unanswered, but the result was several tons of water acting as dead weight.

This extra weight, in combination with stiff 20kt winds caused the high-tech carbon fiber boom (the horizontal spar that holds the bottom of the mainsail) to exceed its design specifications and snap like a toothpick. Four minutes later, at sixteen minutes into the race, with the mainsail now dangerously full of air and straining under the force, the titanium tack ring that holds the bottom forward corner of the genoa (a large sail, overlapping the mast) to the deck exploded into pieces. The Kiwi crew tried valiantly to rig up something to keep the boat in the game but it was for naught. Nine minutes later, at 25 minutes into race one, despite the courageous efforts of the crew, the Kiwis retired, something not done in an America's Cup race since 1920.

Race two was fought in much different conditions. The race was postponed seven times, waiting for the wind to pick up. Once under way, the light 10-kt winds seemed to favor the home team, especially on the first downwind leg where they powered back from being 4-boat lengths behind to three ahead. In sailing this is just not done and could only reflect a wind shift that favored the Kiwis. The question is was this luck or superior strategy and seamenship?

Nothing much happened until the final beat where Alinghi decided to force the issue and begin a tacking duel unequaled in the series. A total of 66 tacks were performed by the boats, a new record. But through it all, New Zealand not only held off the Swiss, but increased their lead. This clearly showed the superior boat speed, handling, and seamenship that the Kiwis are justly proud of.

And yet. And yet in the final leg to the finish, after rounding the final mark, Alinghi's decision to jibe set around the windward mark, versus Team New Zealand's bear away and then jibe, may have been the difference. Their respective decisions allowed Alinghi to get inside to the right where the wind was stronger. Even though the Swiss were behind at this point, they ever so slowly moved closer and closer to the Kiwis and eventually blocked the wind from their sails. The New Zealanders then slowed and were not able to catch up in time to get past to retake the lead.

Race three proved the old adage that it is possible to catch up with the leading boat, but getting past them is another thing. From the start, where Alinghi's afterguard was able to position their boat to the right side of the course, where the wind was forecasted to be stronger, the Swiss led the race. While New Zealand was able to nibble away at that lead over the length of the race, things only got interesting near the last mark.

At that point, there was about one boat-length between the two. But after rounding the mark, the Kiwis made a mental mistake and showed their apparent lack of experience. The crew was set for one type of jibe set, but their skipper called for a switch to another very late in the turn. This caught the crew unprepared and resulted in them having trouble getting the spinnaker pole hooked up once on the run. With the finish line a mere three miles (~4.8km) away, the Kiwis were not able to recover sufficiently and Swiss won pulling away.

I don't know how the series will end but I wonder if the Kiwis have the faster boat, while the Swiss have the more experienced skipper, tactician, and crew.

Aloha!

That sound you hear is the seventh seal of the apocalypse being ripped open. National Geographic (see their site here). The phrase brings back memories of the staid magazine with the yellow border that everyone seems to collect years worth of. As a youngster, I can remember that every time I went over to a certain relative's house I would spend hours going through their old copies. If it wasn't the pull out maps, interesting articles, or fantastic photography, it was the hope that a glimpse of a third world bare breast might be seen (I kept wondering why they didn't go to St. Tropez sometime. In fact, I wondered if there wasn't a kind of racism taking place. Namely, it was OK to show non-Caucasian breasts, but not the reverse. But I digress, or maybe not).

Hitting news stands this month is the National Geographic swimsuit issue. I kid you not. The issue takes a look at swimsuits over the last 100 years. I haven't seen the issue myself but the cover shows a fetching female clothed in three sea shells. No, I don't know if they went to St. Tropez or not. You'll have to buy the issue to find out.

Aloha!

Duck Taped

Aloha!

Sigh. I have more medical tests to do. I've already taken all kinds of tests. Blood tests. Urine tests. CAT scans. MRI scans. X-rays. I've been poked and prodded. And now, an MIBG (iodine-131-meta-iodobenzylguanidine) scan. This one features the injection of a radioisotope. Then, I get scanned on three separate days for about one-and-a-half hours per scan. At the end of this procedure, I will be glowing like a candle. At least I will be able to see the clock at night without having to turn on a light.

I start the testing next week.

Aloha!

They're back. The termites that is. Those wood eating monsters that will not die. After more than a year of peace, we found over 10 new mud tunnels. Subterranean termites, as the name suggests, live underground but create tunnels into your house where they invite themselves for dinner. And lunch. And breakfast.

They are fast. They can go through several board feet of wood in a matter of days. They spread out and cover the house in a matter of weeks. In a few months, they can eat through beams a foot thick.

They are smart. The common approach of tenting houses and filling them with poisonous gas does not work with these things. All they do is cap the ends of the tunnels and wait underground until the coast is clear. Then they open the ends and go back to work.

They are persistent. Even flooding the ground with poison only means they look for another way to get in. And take my word, they will get in.

They can be controlled, but they can not be eradicated. The current state of the art is to leave baits out that include a slow acting poison. So slow that they don't raise an alarm to it. Tomorrow, the termite company will be coming out to install some of these baits. It will then take a month or more until the current colony is reduced in size or they move on to another house.

All that is old is new. Steam powered ships. Nothing new you say. Well, what about a steam powered jet boat (see the story here)? It seems an Australian inventor sold the design of such an engine to a British company who is trying to make a commercial product out of it. I don't know whether this thing actually works but it is an interesting twist on an old power source. The article says it works like this:

A separate boiler heats water to generate steam, which is pushed at about four times normal atmospheric pressure through a hollow tube submerged in the water.

When the steam hits the water, it immediately condenses to 1,600th of its previous volume. The resulting effect is a dramatic drop in pressure, essentially a vacuum, that sucks water from the front to the back of the tube and thus produces thrust to move.

Speaking of old modes of power. How about paper airplanes? No, they haven't discovered a way to build 747s out of paper. I'm talking about the kind you make out of folded paper and toss over to the cubicle across the aisle. Follow this link here to the WRPA Fliers Club and learn how to fold'em and how to hold'em. Included at the site is the 1994 record holding plane that stayed aloft for 18.8 seconds.

Aloha!

Good advertising may not be art, but sometimes it can delight, make a point, or evoke feelings we may not remember we even had. Herewith are a few examples found at the Advertising Educational Foundation site (see it here):

Aloha!

Just an update on a couple of things I'm working on. My experiments with anti-spam software is at a standstill. It seems all of the *nix programs generally available assume you have root access to the server. For me, this is not true. So I'm kind of at a standstill while I try to figure out a way of installing these things. In the meantime, my web host, pair.com, is testing SpamAssassin so all is not lost. MWIKM (more when I know more).

I also have a review copy of CrossOver Office (see it here). They claim the ability to run MS Office under Linux. I don't particularly care if it does or not. What I want to test is whether Lotus Notes does. This is the mail system we use and so far, the only thing I don't have a Linux-based substitute for.

The first of three days of tests starts this afternoon. As noted earlier, it's called an MIBG scan. I started taking an oral solution of potassium iodide yesterday. The potassium is to prevent the accumulation of the radioisotope they will inject today from accumulating in my thyroid. This is so I won't get thyroid cancer from the radiation. Sigh. MWIKM.

Aloha!

I spent my time this morning editing a letter our graduate school group is sending to the head of the Employees' Retirement System so I am out of time. Here are a few Fark links:

Hooter's Air May Go Bust

Top 10 Scientific Discoveries of 2002

BMW: New and Improved, Now Grenade Proof

And this last link here from jwz leading to all kinds of case mods. Enjoy!

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!

I'm at home today doing some work around the house. I have to trim one of the closet sliding doors, paint the front house steps, and watch while a couple of workman move one of our air conditioners from the front house to the back.

I'll be back tomorrow.

Aloha!

I have lots to do, both at work and for class so I gotta' go. [MOFW - Men Of Few Words]

Aloha!

I understand that fellow Daynoter Doctor Keyboard's site and email are down. I don't know when they will be operational again but if you have an urgent need to get ahold of him, you can do so at chriswj at tiscali dot fr

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!

Communications is a tricky process, I'm talking here about the interpersonal kind. Many of you have been part of school exercises in which students are lined up and then the person at the start of the line reads a short message to the next person in line. This next person then, without the aid of having the message written down, orally repeats the message to the next person in line. And so on down the line until the last person has heard the message. At that point, everyone gathers together and the last person tells the group the message he or she heard.

Everyone has a good laugh when what the last person says has very little relation to what the first person in line said. If you've been part of this exercise you know that I'm not kidding when I say the last message has very little in common with the original.

Likewise, one of the tricks in managing organizations is getting your message out to those who have to implement it. If it helps, think of it as the captain of a ship navigating though shallow waters and having to relay messages to a helmsman situated at the opposite end of the ship. If the captain says to turn in one direction, but the message relayed to the helmsman is to go full speed ahead, there will be problems. Such is the challenge to managers in organizations.

There are a couple of ways of communicating well. One way is to call a meeting of everyone who would need to hear the message and tell them all at once. Hence, there is no repeated tellings and no immediate way that your message could be altered. That does not mean different people will interpret what you said in different ways but it does mean everyone starts with the same message. The problem with this is it is very inefficient to gather your workforce every time you want to say something because the work comes to a stop while everyone gathers.

Another way is to use written communications. The written word does not change. You can copy it a hundred times and the last copy will be the same as the first. As above, how it is interpreted, if it is read at all, is greatly dependent on the reader. The problem is, many people won't even read it, much less remember what it said. And even if read, many people have problems interpreting and understanding written communications.

The bottom line is different people learn differently. So if you want to communicate effectively, you have to use multiple vectors to that end. Which vector to use will depend on what needs to be said and who it needs to be said to. Only you, as a good manager, can decide the best way to communicate what you need done. But you must remember to provide multiple opportunities for your message to get out and depending on how large an organization you have, you may have to repeat the message multiple times.

But don't be surprised if what you said and what is heard are two very different things!

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!

Sorry for the late post but Internet access was down again. It's probably just as well as I don't have much to say this morning.

However, I have decided to create redundant access to the Internet by signing up for DSL in addition to the Road Runner cable modem that I have. That way, even if one goes down, I'll have the other to fall back to.

Yes, it will be expendisve but I think access to the Internet has gotten to the point where I am much less productive without it.

So, I'll give DSL a trial and see how well that works.

Aloha!

Dog Bites Shark. If sharks could read, they would know it is not a good idea to attack an Australian dog. At least, not when there's another Australian dog ready to dive in and attack. It seems a man was walking with his dogs along a beach when a shark attacked and dragged one of the dogs under the water.

The second dog, seeing the attack from the beach, came running into the water and attacked the shark. Both dogs emerged from the surf unharmed. See the story here. No word on the shark's condition.

Speed Saves. This is hardly definitive, although I have seen similar reports, but raising the speed limits along certain Norwegian highways has resulted in fewer accidents.

"We think drivers drive better and more steadily at limits they themselves are more satisfied with," Finn Harald Amundsen of the state highway department told newspaper Aftenposten.

See the story here.

Dick Tracy. Yes, it's a watch with a built in cell phone and a 96 X 64 pixel 256 color screen. Electronics giant Samsung announced the watch at CEBIT 2003. See it here. Not to be out-done, Seiko also announced their own wrist-based cell phone. See it here.

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!

Loof Lirpa roundup of tasteless drivel during this time of war.

• Squirrels take over campus. Vow world domination. See it here and here.

• Nudists take over campus. Vow world domination. See it here.

• Brush monkeys invade Michigan. Vow world, ah heck, you know the drill. See it here.

• Windows98 running on PalmOS. Bill Gates surrenders. See it here.

And finally:

Late Update I see that the Loof Lirpa Lite Army has taken a hostage (see picture below). From what I understand, they want [insert the voice of Dr. Evil] one million dollars, or the bird gets it. Updates as they become available (as opposed to when they are just imagined - ed.).

Aloha!

Since it's inception, that cold December day in 1861, the Medal of Honor is the highest award for valor any U.S. military member can earn. And make no mistake, it is indeed earned - many times paid with the ultimate currency, their lives.

It is interesting to note that the original bill, creating the version for the Army (the Navy version came first, and of course, the Air Force much later in the 1950s) stated that it was for "non--commissioned officers and privates..."

I don't know what the process is to nominate someone for this medal. But if the press reports are correct, and in the fog of war things can become very unclear, there is a 19-year-old Army Pfc. supply clerk that may have earned this honor. This soldier, part of the 507th Ordnance Maintenance Company, serving in Iraq, came under withering ambush fire. The Pfc. returned fire, fighting ferociously against the numerically greater forces firing on the unit. And even though gravely wounded by enemy fire, sustaining two broken arms and a broken leg, the Pfc. continued effective suppressing fire against formidable resistance until ammunition ran out. Even then, this soldier bravely fought on, hand-to-hand, until being stabbed multiple times.

Army Private First Class Jessica Lynch's extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit on her, her unit, and the United States Army. If these first reports are true, then she is deserving of being the second woman in the history of the medal to be so honored.

Late Update: This report here says she has no gunshot or knife wounds but does have two broken arms, a broken leg, and broken vertebrae. As they say, it is unclear how she sustained these wounds.

Aloha!

Most people have seen pictures of nuclear reactors. At least, fission ones. The picture below is from Sandia Labs and is of one of a fusion reactor, or I should say one that could one day lead to a controlled fusion reactor.

To tell you the truth, just looking at a regular reactor gives me the heebeejeebies. But to see a fusion one, makes me think of Dr. Frankenstein's lab. At one time it is strangely beautiful and a fearsome sight. I wonder if we really understand the possible effects of the technology we are so diligently trying to produce?

Read the complete story here. Thanks to JWZ for the link.

Aloha!

Another busy day and nothing much interesting in my morning searches so see you tomorrow.

Aloha!

For those of you who appreciate Rube Goldberg-type devices, you'll love this Honda UK ad (requires Macromedia Flash) here. It is amazing in its inventive use of physics from start to end.

Speaking of Rube Goldberg, anyone who knows their way through a governmental budget knows the devil is in the details (talk about tortured metaphors - ed.). I haven't been over to Jennifer Balderama's site for awhile but today's post (see it here) talks about how President Bush's budget would give billions for defense, but then turn around and cut spending $150 million US for the Veterans' Administration and aide to schools attended by military dependents.

Of course this is the way to honor and reward our military. Make sure they don't have social/medical benefits and make sure the schools their children attend are poor and run down. Of course this makes sense. Not.

Speaking of outrages, the Republicans are trying to make permanent the onerous surveillance safety intrusions laws put into effect post September 11th. Dan Bricklin meditates on what the big picture is and how this war against the forces of safety versus liberty are winning and you are losing. See the column here.

Try to have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!

Here's a different way of looking at the looting in Iraq (see it here). The main premise is that the real looting ended when the statue of Saddam was pulled down. For two decades, the real looters wore suits and uniforms, not robes or blue jeans. I don't know that I agree with everything the author has to say, but it's not a long column so take a look at the Big Picture.

Aloha!

It must be me. But I can't understand why I have so many problems with shippers. It's not like I have a lot of things ordered from the mainland. But am I asking too much when I pay for 2nd day air service I get something in two days?

The last time I had problems, it was with UPS (see the post here). Now it's FedEx. The package was picked up from Amazon.com on Monday, April 14th at 2:13 p.m. According to the FedEx tracking system, almost exactly 24 hours later, it made it to Honolulu on Tuesday at 2:19 p.m. I reckoned they would deliver the package the next day, Wednesday, April 16th but Wednesday came and went with no package.

I checked the tracking this morning and it says a package, with this same tracking number was logged in again in Honolulu yesterday (Wednesday) at 4:55 p.m. Hmmm. Why is it being logged in twice, on different days?

All I know is it's now Thursday, four days after package pick-up and I still don't have my package. You better believe I filed a complaint with FedEx and will also do so with Amazon. The email response back from from FedEx was a canned reply that did not even come close to answering the issues I asked (why is it taking four days to deliver and why is the tracking system showing double entries).

So I called FedEx and spoke to "Debra". Debra must be having a long day and is tired of answering questions because her voice was full of sarcasm. Of course FedEx does not have a two-day service to Hawai'i or Alaska. Yes, it's called 2nd-day air, but that's not what it is for these two states. Well, why don't they say that anywhere? She had no answer to that. Further, she had no answer as to why the tracking system was showing multiple arrivals in Honolulu, other than to say it is a computer glitch. Sigh. I know when I'm being brushed off and I know when I'm wasting my time talking with someone. My next step is send a snail mail complaint to the CEO of FedEx.

People talk about gummint workers being rude and not caring about their customers, well take a look at private shipping companies because they are 10 times worse.

I hate this. I don't want to fight with shipping companies. I just want them to do what I paid them to. No excuses, no weaseling about computer glitches. Just deliver the darned box on time. Sigh.

Tomorrow is a state holiday, if my router gets delivered today I'll be setting that up tomorrow. If not, I got a copy of Red Hat 9 so I may install that and see what wonders Linux has to display. In either case, there won't be a post here.

Aloha!

Our graduate school group is heads down as we finish our thesis paper. We hope to have it done by Thursday but it will be a stretch to do so. For example, yesterday I took off early from work and our group met from 2:00 p.m. (14:00) to 8:00 p.m. (20:00).

Anyway, there is much more to do and not much time to do it.

"Something you just don't want to touch." That, from a Charleston Police Major when asked to enforce the city's indecent exposure law in relation to women sunbathing in a city park. It seems some people are offended by women wearing bikinis (well, I agree, they shouldn't be wearing anything [whack!], ummm, sorry about that dear. - ed). It seems the city has been transported through a time warp back to the Victorian era where women must be clothed from head to foot and their faces covered in veils. Wait. Isn't that a description of Iran? See the story here. Oh, by the way, the Major is speaking only for himself [Whack!].

Aloha!

Sorry, no post today. I'm trying to get some sleep to recover from finishing the first draft of our 143 page paper.

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!

I'm still very tired, and a little worse for wear (I'm getting too old to pull these all-nighters like a college freshman cramming for finals). But here I am.

Speak softly and carry a sawed-off shotgun. One of the interesting tid-bits that came out of the recent Russian Soyuz spacecraft landing is the news that the capsule is armed. It seems an earlier off-target capsule landed among a pack of hungry wolves, so, from that point forward, all Soyuz spacecraft came armed with a shotgun. What was that about the right to arm [Russian] bears? See the story, via Fark here.

"They took everything, even the silverware." Looting broke out in the city. Mobs of crazed, greedy people took anything that wasn't welded down. Nothing was safe. It was as if the thin veil of civilization was torn into shreds by the animalistic rampage. Iraq? Nope. Try the United Nations - in New York City. It seems the food workers went on strike, leaving thousands of the world's elite, peace-loving diplomats without food. So what did they do? They acted like the blood-thirsty sycophantic sybarites that they are and looted the restaurants taking everything with them. See the full story here.

Top 75 Network Security Tools For those of you who need to know such things, here's a list of security tools that you may, or may not, be aware of. Most of the well known ones are there but a few news ones are among the old. So take a quick look here for the list. Now if they would just write more tools for token-ring networks I would be extremely happy.

Aloha!

REQUEST FOR URGENT BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP

FIRST, I MUST SOLICIT YOUR CONFIDENCE IN THIS TRANSACTION. THIS IS VIRTUE OF IT'S NATURE AS BEING UTTERLY CONFIDENTIAL AND TOP SECRET.

MY NAME IS SADDAM AND I AM A TOP OFFICIALS OF THE IRAQI GOVERNMENT [NOW IN TEMPORARY EXILE]. SOMEONE RECENTLY LEFT A BILLION U.S. DOLLARS (1,000,000,000) ON MY DOORSTEP DURING THE NIGHT HOURS AND WISH TO MOVE THE LOOT FULLY LEGAL FUNDS.

IN ORDER TO COMMENCE THIS TRANSACTION I SOLICIT YOUR ASSISTANCE, KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERTISE TO ENABLE US RECEIVE THE SAID TRAPPED FUNDS ABROAD, FOR THE SUBSEQUENT PURCHASE AND INVENTORY OF THE GOODS TO BE IMPORTED AND THE INVESTMENT IN EUROPE (FRANCE AND GERMANY).

I LOOK FORWARD TO HEARING FROM YOU SOONEST.

[SIGNED]SADDAM HUSSEIN al-MAJD al-TIKRITI

PS: I ALSO HAVE SOME WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION THAT YOU MAY ALSO BE INTERESTED IN.

Aloha!

Living out in the middle of the Pacific has some downsides. One of those is getting things delivered on time. I've already chronicled the trials and tribulations I've had with overnight delivery services. The last installment was with FedEx and the time before that was UPS. Well, it's back to UPS again.

I paid $25 for overnight shipping from Colorado to here. $25. US. Hard currency. The product of the sweat of my brow (do brows sweat? - ed.).

So I start tracking the package. It's picked up on Tuesday, May 6th at about 4:50 p.m.. It then makes its way to the Ontario, California hub by 11:00 p.m. that night. Six hours later, at 5:00 a.m., it is on its way to Honolulu. Due to the wonders of time zones, it arrives in Honolulu 7:45 a.m. (a flight from California takes about 5 hours).

Up to this time, the scheduled delivery date was Wednesday, May 7th. This is as it should be when you pay for overnight delivery service. But. The delivery date has been pushed back to Thursday, May 8th.

What was that about one-day service? But lo, wait! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the package being delivered even as I write this! Oh well, never mind.

In a related vein, why does it cost more to air ship something from California to Hawai'i then it does to fly the same item from California to Florida? Let's take a look: San Francisco to Miami is about 2,600 miles (~4,200km) but San Francisco to Honolulu is only 2,400 (~3,900km)(follow this link here to get the distance between various cities). Now, let's look at the cost of sending a one-pound UPS Pak via next day air: SF to Miami: $29.58 and SF to Honolulu: $31.11 - shorter distance, higher price.

Yes, UPS might be able to use a cheaper, smaller jet between San Francisco and Miami, but the cost per pound per mile would probably still be higher if they did multiple stops along the way and had less capacity to carry cargo. I dunno, maybe jet fuel costs less to burn over land than water?

What, me worry? Aloha!

It becomes clear to me why we in Hawai'i have so many problems with the "Lower 48." This story here says the town of Glassport, Pennsylvania did not recognize Alaska or Hawai'i as being part of the US. At least, as far as the flag they were flying was concerned. It seems no one got around to changing the flag hanging in the city counsel room since at least 1959. So, of course, the flag had only 48 stars.

Oh well, maybe sometime they'll get around to spelling the name of our state correctly. Hawai'i. That's an okina between the two "i"s in Hawai'i. Actually, I use the apostrophe because it's as close to the okina that I can find in the default character sets. If I could only figure out how to use the UTF characters there maybe something closer. Maybe someday when I have more time.

In any case, what's the fuss? No, this is not a case of being politically correct. The okina is a glottal stop used to show the proper pronunciation, and therefore the proper meaning of a word. You literally are misspelling a word if the punctuation marks are left out and if you misspell something (he says, while madly grabbing for the dictionary), you are not communicating effectively.

Will the world come to an end if you don't use an okina or apostrophe? No, but if you want to communicate well, you need to know how to spell.

Aloha!

[EFX - background sound of voices singing]

I'd like to buy the world a home and furnish it with love,
Grow apple trees and honey bees, and snow white turtle doves.
I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony,
I'd like to buy the world a Coke and keep it company.
[Repeat the last two lines, and in the background:]
It's the real thing, Coke is what the world wants today.

Yes, boys and girls. You can now watch 50 years of Coke commercials via the Library of Congress (LOC) site here. No, I'm not going to take any cheap shots about the waste of tax dollars [since when? - ed.] but the LOC has a retrospective collection of Coke commercials available in (hawk, spit) RealG2 format. From the Hilltop to Mean Joe Greene to the polar bears, they are all there (well, almost all). Drink up. Thanks to Fark for the link.

With the success of the re-make movie Charlies Angels, we should not be surprised that other 80's era TV shows are in development. For example: Starsky & Hutch, Magnum P.I., Hawaii Five-O, The A-Team, Knight Rider, MacGyver and The Six Million Dollar Man. See the story here. Thanks to Fark for the link.

Bear Bites Sub. Follow this link here to the story of the hungry polar bear that decided the tail fin of a nuclear sub looked like lunch. Thanks for Don Armstrong for the link.

Star Trek Bites. Or I should say this guy has issues with Star Trek and lists the top ten things he doesn't like about it. A sample of his list: Noisy doors (think WD-40). The holodeck being used for everything except what it probably would be used for (think latex). And the Prime Directive (think mutual suicide pact). See the list here.

Dog is caddy. No, I didn't say dog bites caddy. I said dog is caddy. See the story here abut the dog that pulls a special built cart that hauls his masters balls around. And club(s).

--------------------

I have the third, and I hope last, draft of our paper. There are a few more things to check before I turn it in after work today but it looks pretty good. Our professor says he is pleased with the quality of the paper so we are happy. Now we need to graduate on Sunday.

Next up is working on creating a presentation before the retirement system Board of Trustees. Once that is done, we will be done.

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!

Today is my semi-annual PC deep cleaning so I will be off-line for awhile. In addition, I will be taking the day off tomorrow to make it a long weekend. So, there probably won't be any post.

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!

Even though I was supposed to relax and recover from the rigors of finishing our final paper, I ended up doing all kinds of stuff around the house that had been put off while doing other things.

On the other hand, I did get some much needed sleep so it wasn't all work.

As to computer related things, we got approval at work to purchase some new PCs. We have a bunch of Dell OptiPlex GX1s with Pentium II 350MHz CPUs and 64MB of RAM. Needless to say, they have served us well but need to be replaced. So we will be getting Dell GX260Ds with 2.66 GHz Pentium 4s, 512MB of RAM, DVD burners, and ATI Radeon video cards. In addition, we will get Dell 17-inch flat panel LCD monitors. The total cost per PC is about $1,800, including monitors, tax, and shipping. If all goes well (inset sound of person knocking on wood), we should get the PCs in a about a month.

Aloha!

Sorry. No post today. I'm up to my ears in work, both from my day job and finishing the PowerPoint presentation for my Masters. The presentation is next week Wednesday so no time for the wicked.

Aloha!

Getting my work done is my bottom line. So I'm not into religious wars. At least, not when they are about technology. When it comes to that, I'm a pragmatist. That is, whatever works best is what I use. Whether "best" is an operating system or browser or music compression algorithm.

While I don't profess to be an engineer or scientist, I like to think I try to choose what I use in a rational way. I especially admire the process of problem solving that educator John Dewey came up with in the early 1900s.

1. Operationally define the problem.
2. Generate alternative solutions.
3. Establish objective criteria to rate the alternatives.
4. Decide on a solution that best fits each criterion.
5. Implement the solution.
6. Evaluate how well the solution met the criteria.

In the end, following a process that is rational is, I think, the most efficient use of my time. Others like to base decisions on values which, in many cases, is a Good Thing. But not always.

For example, the wars between what is called OpenSource and commercial software. Many, but not all, OpenSoftware proponents strongly feel that regardless of how well OpenSource software works, it should be chosen over commercial software because of, among other things, the values of open standards, freedom to choose, and team building embodied in the OpenSource movement.

Proponents of commercial software note that the competitive environment keeps companies focused on building robust products that serve a purpose people are willing to pay money for.

Yes, my characterization of things can be viewed as a simplification of a complex phenomenon. But what's important in this discussion is to understand that each has its niche in the marketplace of ideas and what I like to do is to take what is best from each so that I can get my work done.

Aloha!

I forgot to mention thatWil Wheaton was interviewed on a local TV station over the weekend. As you may know, Wheaton and the gang are in Hawai'i for one for one of the CruiseTrek "expeditions" (see it here). They are scheduled to cruise between the islands (and Fanning Island, Republic of Kiribati, thanks to US laws concerning non-US flag ships sailing between US ports) of O'ahu, the Big Island, Maui, and Kaua'i.

The interview wasn't very long but Wheaton came across pretty much like his website: sincere, funny, and an all-round likable guy next door (if you lived next door to a starship ensign).

I surfed over the the StarWars.com site yesterday and found, to my knowledge, the first pay site for a movie. That is, if you want to view any of the "premium" content on the official George Lucas Star Wars movie site you have to pay. Yes, there is some stuff available for free (after you register). But if you want the good stuff that used to be free, you gots to pay.

I guess it had to happen but paying to learn about a movie? I dunno about that. Given the disappointing Episodes I and II, I'm not sure I'm going to pay anyone to learn about a movie that won't be out until the summer of 2005 (Episode III). Further, it seems to me, the point of most movie sites is to get people to know about the movie and then want to go see it. To do that, most sites do their best to make it easy for people to come in and be persuaded. Putting up a door and charging an entrance fee sure seems like a strange way of welcoming your prospective guests. But then, they're rolling in dough and I'm just a poor <oxymoron>government servant</oxymoron>.

As to the site, the only thing I want to know is when will Episode IV: A New Hope, the original Star Wars come out on DVD? As far as I'm concerned, everything went down hill from there anyway so who cares about Episode III?

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!

Another busy, if short week. I have a meeting tomorrow to get ready for. Wednesday is a state holiday ( Kamehameha Day. As a side note, the building in back of the statue is where I work). And Thursday I have an appointment with my doctor for an annual physical. In between all of that I start painting the interior of our front house. We tried to get the painters who did the upstairs interior but they gave us three different start dates and never showed up for any of them so we'll save $2,000US by doing it ourselves.

Is that a terahertz in your pocket or are you just happy to see me? There's a write-up here that says the next time you get x-rayed, you might actually be t-rayed. T-rays, as in terahertz rays, is being touted as the next big thing in imaging technology. Like x-rays, t-rays can pass through many substances, thus giving you a look at the insides of things. But, according to the article, they are less dangerous to us than x-rays. thanks to BoingBoing for the link.

Public Service Announcement. This one (see it here from the Honolulu Star-Bulletin) made it national so I guess I'll mention it also. Do not buy food from road side vendors who do not have health department permits. This seems kind of obvious but I guess not to everyone. It seems enterprising people are selling fish, pork, and other perishable foods from their vehicles parked along side the road. What is interesting is that people are buying these foods either not caring or not knowing that the food requires proper preparation and storage to be safely edible.

Aloha!

Sorry but no post today. I've been busy from the time I got up until now. I'm putting some workload numbers together at work and it is the kind of stuff that you have to get right. Otherwise, people can loose their jobs for nothing. So, I have to get it right the first time because that's the only chance you get.

As noted earlier, tomorrow is a state holiday so probably no post.

Aloha!

I don't know what to make of this number one: The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting (see it here) that

Emperor Hirohito considered making an astonishing personal apology for the Second World War in which he was to express "deep shame at my immorality," according to a newly discovered document.

I really don't know what all this means, especially since the apology was never made. While it might be interesting to know such a document was drafted, assuming here that is is valid, I don't know that it's more than a contingency plan that was never executed. I guess the historians will have some writing to do to explain this one.

I don't know what to make of this number two: The Honolulu Star-Bulletin is reporting (see it here) of an airlines that wasn't. An airlines, that is. Even though it alleged it could fly you from Los Angeles to Honolulu for $89, it appears this was a deal that was too good to be true.

The airlines, excuse me, the "tour operator", an 18-year-old student in Massachusetts offered flights, excuse me, "seats" at fares lower than anywhere else. Hundreds of people flocked to his website and paid money for tickets, excuse me, "vouchers" that could be exchanged for flights starting next month. The problem is the student had no agreements with any charters, no agreements or permits with the FAA, airports, baggage handlers, ticket agents, or any of the other groups you have to work with if you actually want to provide this service.

Hence, both the Hawai'i and Massachusetts courts have gotten involved issuing restraining orders against this operation. Now, I don't know if this is just a business college case study that got out of hand or if criminal intent was involved here. But in either case, the student is in a world of trouble right now.

I don't know what to make of this three: What's with these people who love Ghambian rats or prairie rodents as pets? Is there something wrong with a dog? Why do people think it is a good idea to buy rodents, regardless of where they come from? Do these people have brains? Do they not understand disease vectors? Do they not understand dying from leaking lesions full of puss covering your body? By the way, there is no cure. If you are infected, you have a one-in-ten chance of dying. See the Centers for Disease Control site here. Oh, and have a nice day.

Aloha!

Not much going on over in the Seto Shack lately. I'm still in the front house doing some prep work before I actually start painting. I have to take down the blinds, mask the windows, patch the holes from where we hung our artwork, and replace molding that were removed during the renovations.

I probably won't get to painting until later this week. In the meantime, in our back house, I have to hang the artwork that we took down. SWMBO and I went through our stuff last night and decided where everything would go. Now I have to get a bunch of picture hanging nails and get to it.

Aloha!

As with many questions, the answer is it depends. See the numbers from the (US) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, National Center for Statistics and Analysis here.

Physics can be your friend or your enemy. Compared to passenger cars, light trucks (which include SUVs) were 11.5 percent less likely to be involved in a fatality (47.4 percent versus 35.8). On the other hand, fatalities due to roll-overs were 15.7 percent for passenger cars vs. an average of 23.3 percent for light trucks. Thus, being in a light truck lowers the probability of fatality overall but dramatically increases the probability of fatality due to rollover.

In addition, light trucks are involved in injury crashes an average of 6.35 percent of the time versus 3.4 percent for passenger cars. Further, light trucks are involved in property damage only crashes on average of 1.65 percent of the time versus 0.9 percent for passenger cars.

But looking at the rates based on vehicle miles driven (which is one way of normalizing the data), fatalities in passenger cars are 1.73 versus 2.13 for light trucks (as compared to motorcycles are at 34.1). For the rate per 100,000 registered vehicles (another way of normalizing the data), the numbers are 21.31 for passenger cars and 26.23 for light trucks.

So, while overall there are fewer fatalities in light trucks, when you normalize the data, being in a light truck appears to be more dangerous. Some have theorized that this is caused by the higher rollover rates, which if true, indicates drivers of light trucks need to understand their vehicles have higher centers of gravity and therefore must be driven differently from passenger vehicles.

In either case, these are the numbers and I'm no expert so you decide. YMMV.

Sorry for the late posting yesterday but our Internet access was down. Really. Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Aloha!

You don't have to work in government to know medical costs are rising. Hence, it was not unreasonable that the Hawai'i legislature, looking for a way to cuts costs (since it didn't want to raise taxes), recently eliminated one of two medical plans available to state employees.

Up until now, the state had one health plan and the public employee unions had another. It was up to public employees to choose which they wanted but the cost to the employee was the same whichever plan they chose. The unions, having an incentive to provide the best plan for their members as possible, negotiated with providers to do just that. Conversely, the state, not concerned with anything other than cost, negotiated one low on cost and therefore low on benefits.

Not surprisingly, those employees who belonged to unions tended to choose the union plan. But as the cost of health care skyrocketed over the last few years, the state decided it had to do something. That something was to eliminate the union plan.

Whether this was fair or moral or right is not the focus of this essay. Those values would be Good Things to have in government but in these tough economic times perhaps it is too much to expect of our elected officials.

But having made the decision to eliminate the union plan, the department responsible for transferring something like 90,000 people from one plan to another got into gear. Unfortunately, it appears it was "reverse" gear instead of forward.

It appears the planning for the transfer was not up to the task. The period of employees to make the choice (state plan or nothing) was one month long. After that, the department had one month to key-in all the changes before the July 1st deadline. The changes were submitted on a four page form full of data items.

It does not take a psychic to guess that 90,000 such forms would take time to input. It turns out it will take more than one month. It may take as long as two or three. If this occurs, all of the people whose forms have not yet been inputed will, for purpose of eligibility and billing, be shown as not having any medical/dental/optical coverage at all.

This means if I go to the doctor, dentist, or optician they have a choice to make: turn me away or take the chance that I have coverage even though the computer system will say I don't. This is a difficult position to put a provider. Not only because of the immediate economic liability, but even if I do have coverage, government systems being what they are, who is to say the current computer system can handle back-dated invoices? I can imagine all kinds of technical problems that will keep providers from getting paid. Should this happen, my guess is I will end up paying the provider directly and it will be up to me to try to get reimbursement from the state.

Having worked for the state for almost 20 years, the probability of getting reimbursement is about equal to a frozen di-hydrogen monoxide sphere in Hades.

Aloha!

California Legislative Assembly Votes Down Privacy Bill. Group legally releases the Social Security Numbers of those who voted against the bill. Hilarity ensues. See the story here. Thanks to Fark for the link.

Mobs Take Manhattan. Please. Feeling left out? Felling the need to congregate with a mass of people? Well, ever wanted to be in a mob? Nows your chance. Join the mob movement. See the story here.

[T]he Mob Project, an e-mail-driven experiment in organizing groups of people who suddenly materialize in public places, interact with others according to a loose script and then dissipate just as suddenly as they appeared.

The GIF is Dead, Long Live the GIF.

On Friday, 20th June 2003, the death knell sounds for US patent number 4,558,302. Having benefitted its owner, the Unisys Corporation for 20 years, the contents of the patent are entered into the Public Domain and may be used absolutely freely by anyone.

Officially titled "High speed data compression and decompression apparatus and method", it is more commonly known as the LZW patent or Unisys's GIF tax.

Thanks to Kuro5hin for the link.

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!

Wow Wie! There's an old golf saying about "You drive for show but you putt for dough." Well, if 13-year-old amateur Michelle Wie were a pro, she would be rolling in dough right now. The ninth-grader-to-be won the U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links in Florida yesterday (see the story here).

Wie, the youngest to ever win the title is known for her 300 yard (~275m) plus drives. Her weakness, if there is one, was her putting. But she seemed to have nerves of steel yesterday as she rammed home putts from every direction and distance.

Congratulations to the Punahou Putter.

Turkeys, white elephants and dodos. That's how some are describing the equipment the British military are forced to use. The article here tells especially of the problems with their Phoenix drone which wags have nicknamed the "Bugger Off" because it never seems to come back (or perhaps they don't want it to).

The Smell of Napalm in the Morning In something out of the movie Apocalypse Now, US forces attacked Iraqi strong holds yesterday to the sound of Wagner's Die Walküre. No word yet when the special edition DVD will be released.

Aloha!

Fed Up with FedEx. Readers of this site will remember my ongoing problems with UPS and FedEx. While one must but marvel at companies that can move hundreds of thousands of packages from point A to point B in such a short time, for which they are to be applauded, there is a problem.

My problem is their business model that seems to artificially place Hawai'i at a disadvantage. On the mainland, shippers have several different ways of conveying your packages: long-haul jet, short-haul jet, train, truck, and vans. Hence, a business model can be rationalized that charges more for the faster modes of transportation versus the slower ones.

But, there is only one way to the islands and that is via long-haul jet. Hence, no matter which level of service you pay for, all packages will be arriving via the same mode and at the same time. This poses a problem to these businesses because how can you charge more to one customer when lower paying customers would otherwise get their package at the same time?

The answer is to hold packages at their warehouse. This artificially creates a multi-tier system in which some packages will be delivered before others, even though all arrive in Hawai'i at the same time.

Such is the case with the first of six Dell computers we ordered last month. Below is the tracking information from FedEx:

Scan Activity                   Date/Time        Scan Exceptions
-------------                 ----------------   ---------------
Package status HONOLULU HI    06/20/2003 11:32 Package in FedEx location
Package status HONOLULU HI    06/20/2003 11:32 Package not due for delivery
On FedEx vehicle for delivery 06/20/2003 11:05 
On FedEx vehicle for delivery 06/20/2003 10:58 
Arr at FedEx Dest HNL HI      06/20/2003 09:23 
Package status HONOLULU HI    06/20/2003 07:04 Package in FedEx location
Arrived at FedEx Ramp HNL     06/20/2003 07:04 
Left FedEx Sort Fac MEMPHIS   06/20/2003 03:31 
Held at Sort Facility MEMPHIS 06/19/2003 14:50 
Held at Sort Facility MEMPHIS 06/19/2003 14:45 
Arrived at Sort Fac MEMPHIS   06/19/2003 13:29 
Left FedEx Ramp AUSTIN TX     06/19/2003 07:02

Notice the top four lines. The package was put on the truck for delivery last Friday at about 11:00am. It was then pulled off the truck at 11:30 because "Package not due for delivery". This is not the first time this has happened. But usually, they catch the error before they load the truck and all I see is a notation that the package is held at their warehouse for later delivery.

I guess this system is better than charging everyone the highest price but I have to wonder if there isn't a better way?

Ring My Dell. So the first of six Dell OptiPlex 260D PCs arrived yesterday afternoon. It has a Pentium IV 2.66GHz CPU, 512MB of RAM, 40GB hard drive, DVD/CDROM burner, and a lovely 17-inch flat panel LCD monitor. I think I like it. ;=>

Riding Wide. See this site here to see what it would like to run a flight simulator in front of 12 monitors.

Aloha!

LRP is Dead. Long live the LRP. Anyone who has gone over to the Linux Router Project site in the last six months could have told you it was dead or at least dying. But it is with a heavy heart that I point to the official announcement of its demise here. For a long time I used an LRP-based firewall/router and never had a problem with it. I am sorry there will be no further development of this worthy project.

I note that many people talk about the OpenSource movement and how it is done without commercial inducement. But in the end, if any non-trivial project is to mature and prosper, money will have to come from somewhere. You can't eat code. You can't pay the rent with it. So if you can't find a way of getting people to give you money for it, you will stop working on it and instead work on something that does pay the bills (unless you are already independently wealthy).

This is reality. I'm not saying it's good or bad. It just is. If you want to start an OpenSource project as a hobby, be my guest. Otherwise, think long and hard about what your priorities are and what you want to get out of it.

Another One Bites the Dust. When it comes to politicians, it is always wise to watch what they do, not what they say. For example, our Republican governor, when campaigning for office, praised the work of the Legislative Auditor for rooting out waste and pointing an accusing finger at public programs that were not running well. In fact, one of the Governor's main blanks while running for governor was restoring trust in government. Now that she is in office, and is the target of these very same audits, the Governor wants to weaken the Auditor's Office and vetoed two bills designed to give the Auditor more funding authority and flexibility.

Ever the master of spin, our Governor said cutting the funding for the Auditor's Office would strengthen the office by reducing "waste." I am willing to give the Governor the benefit of the doubt, but I must ask Governor Lingle, how does this restore trust in government by reducing the number of audits?

Aloha!

As you might expect, the new US Federal Trade Commission site (see it here) for creating a list of people who don't want to be called by telemarketers is overwhelmed by the thundering herds trying to get on the list. Telemarketers are then supposed to check the list before they call and if they find your number, they are prohibited from calling you.

Of course, no federal law would be complete without loopholes:

1. The list is for home phone numbers only, not businesses. It's okay to spam you at work.

2. The registration lasts for five years, after that you have to reregister. It's assumed you want to get back on the list so they give you the opportunity for that to happen every five years.

3. If, for whatever reason, you temporarily disconnect your phone service, then reconnect, you must reregister. It's assumed that you want to receive spam so they want to make it as easy as possible for that to happen.

4. The prohibition against calls does not include "political organizations, charities, telephone surveyors, the business of insurance (to the extent that it is regulated by state law), or companies with which you have an existing business relationship." It's assumed that you want to hear from these organizations. Even if you don't, they don't care because they have a strong lobby in Congress. The way these things work, expect more and more organizations to be added to the list as they pay-off urge Congress to remove this onerous intrusion on business rights (as usual, no one cares about your rights - ed.).

For more information, check out the FTC here. This being a government agency, some of the links on their page do not work (like their employees - ed.)

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!

Cat's Meow. Having problems with the cats jumping on your computer keyboard? Worse yet, are the cats really into instant messaging? Well, have I got the program for you. Pawsense (see the site here) is designed to "quickly detect and block cat typing..." I kid you not. It monitors and analyzes "keypress timings and combinations to distinguish cat typing from human typing. PawSense normally recognizes a cat on the keyboard within one or two pawsteps."

Acme Engineering. Now, in one place, see all of the engineering feats of this premiere engineering firm (see it here). All have been tested in the desert southwest heat (PETA warning, one animal was repeatedly, over and over, harmed). From adding machines to X-rays, it's all there.

Trying Times. The Army Times, not exactly a bastion of liberal thought, blasts Republican President Bush and Republican controlled Congress for talking about supporting our troops but not backing it up with action (see the story here).

Taken piecemeal, all these corner-cutting moves might be viewed as mere flesh wounds. But even flesh wounds are fatal if you suffer enough of them. It adds up to a troubling pattern that eventually will hurt morale — especially if the current breakneck operations tempo also rolls on unchecked and the tense situations in Iraq and Afghanistan do not ease.

Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Texas, who notes that the House passed a resolution in March pledging “unequivocal support” to service members and their families, puts it this way: “American military men and women don’t deserve to be saluted with our words and insulted by our actions.”

Translation: Money talks — and we all know what walks.

Much A Do About Much A Do. There has been a simmering revolt against Really Simple Syndication (RSS) (if you don't know or care what RSS is join the club. Otherwise, follow this link here for the explanation). But it apparently erupted into public view like the puss from a pimple (eeeewww - ed.). InfoWorld's columnist Jon Udell has probably as good as commentary on what it's about as any (see it here). Sometimes, out of chaos and pain comes order and lightness. But most times, it's just more chaos and pain.

Aloha!

The PCs are here! The PCs are here! The five additional PCs we ordered came in late yesterday so I will be spending time installing our software. So I gotta go (I think he means he has to install the software - ed.).

Aloha!

Going Gold. Mozilla 1.4 and Netscape Navigator 7.1 recently went on the wire. Check them out here. Firebird is still holding at 0.6 and appears to be delayed, as compared to their road map but it is still my choice of browser right now.

Gold Plated. The US Defense Advanced Research Agency (DARPA)FALCON program (see it here) is designed to "develop technologies and demonstrate capabilities that will enable transformational changes in global, time critical strike missions." Translated into hardware it would be a "...Hypersonic Cruise Vehicle (HCV). This autonomous aircraft would be capable of taking off from a conventional military runway and striking targets 9,000 nautical miles distant in less than two hours. It could carry a 12,000-pound payload consisting of Common Aero Vehicles (CAVs), cruise missiles, small diameter bombs or other munitions."

The BBC has nice rendering of the vehicle here.

I wonder how much a thermo-nuclear device (TND) would weigh and whether Superior Hyper-Intelligence Technology would be incorporated into the design?

Gold Mine. Ever buy something from an Internet site and read the privacy statement saying how they will never sell or give away your private information for any purpose? If so, read this story here here about how that does not mean they can't rent or lease the information to others. Don't you just love these businesses that are in the business of getting your private information? Actually selling something is not where they make their money. It's in creating a list of people who are willing to buy stuff over the 'Net. There's big bucks in that business and some are trying to cash in.

I don't know what the solution is but the first step in solving it is in realizing that there is a problem.

Aloha!

Step into IT. Microsoft has a DVD with a series of demos for Windows XP (see it here). Included is a movie that Dr. Pournelle talks about in his column. The title of the movie is "Step Into Liquid" and is a step above your usual surf movie. You can download the trailer, among others including a clip from "Terminator 2", directly from MS (see it here) or order the DVD (although it doesn't include the Terminator clip) for the cost of shipping charges (sorry, North America only).

Note these clips are in high definition and require 2.5 to 3.0 GHz processors and 4X AGP video cards to display their content (or just play them on your 60-inch HD plasma screen TV).

A wise huckster public relations person once said "Control how a situation is defined and you have won more than half the battle." Such is the case when the media bought into the use of the word "piracy" when it comes to possible copyright infringement.

Once the problem is framed as such, it is but one short step to a solution: online activation. Microsoft was the first major player to require this and now comes Adobe. Information Week (see the article here) is reporting Adobe is testing activation for Photoshop 7 in Australia. The article goes on to say Adobe, barring a revolt from their pirates honest customers, will roll out the requirement next in the US.

While you still have a choice, you may want to start looking for alternatives that don't treat you as a criminal.

Turnabout is Fair Play. A couple of people at MIT have put together a website (see it here) designed to gather as much information as possible about government organizations/corporations/individuals. They figure if the government has the right to spy on its own citizens, it should be okay for those same citizens to spy on their government.

There are some deep questions that are being asked and I'm a little uncomfortable about anyone collecting unedited, unchecked information but I guess what's good for the goose should be good for the gander. Only, if it isn't good for the goose, should the gander do it anyway? You decide.

Aloha!

Aloha, Earthlings. NASA ISS Science Officer Ed Lu is aboard the International Space Station and blogging his experiences here. There's also a link to a photo gallery here which is where the image below comes from. The pic shows what appears to be an IBM laptop running Windows and Godzilla about to eat Asia. Wait! Godzilla? Asia? Run! Run for your lives!

Earth to Lingle. The governor of Hawai'i, Linda Lingle released a press statement yesterday saying she won't be vetoing part of the Judiciary's budget after all. The reason? Because her Attorney General let her know that the Hawai'i Constitution embodies the concept of separation of powers.

As such, the Governor does not run the Judiciary. Neither does she control the Judiciary's budget. Obviously, this was news to her. One can but only wonder at what else she is unaware of. What else doesn't she know about the very basic foundations of our constitution? The mind boggles. Is this the type of change she said she was bringing to government?

FR24 Update. I forgot to mention I had additional problems with the Hawking Technology FR24 Dual WAN Router I've been using. I thought all my problems were solved by disabling their DHCP and using static internal IP addresses. But no. There's more. Even with that change, the router got into a fault state that even unplugging it did not help. I don't know what happened as all was going well until the WAN1 input, the RoadRunner modem went down (this is not unusual, which is why I have the backup, but slower Verizon ADSL). Instead of automatically switching to WAN2, the status light glowed red. I was not able to reset the router because it would not respond to any input while in this state.

The problem persisted until WAN1 came back up. All I can say is when it works, it works well. But when it doesn't, it doesn't at all. Still Not Recommended. I guess I'll have to save my pennies and buy the Nexland.

Step Into Liquid Update. I forgot to mention one of the comments of an interviewee in the surfing movie clip mentioned yesterday. Paraphrasing from memory: "Hang out with old guys and you are going to look good [in comparison to them]." ;) In addition, fellow Daynoter Phil Hough mentioned MS wasn't kidding when they said what the minimum system requirements were for viewing the clips. And finally, I noticed on the DVD sampler I got from MS that the content expires in 60 days. Sigh. I assume MS Mediaplayer will enforce the digital rights of the content. I'll let you know in 59 days.

Aloha!

FR24 Update Part Deux. Fellow Daynoter Dave Markowitz (see his site here) commented yesterday on my trouble with the Hawking Tech FR24 about a Linux-based solution found here. As with many Linux solutions, it does require getting your hands dirty and recompiling the kernel, editing configuration files, and creating scripts but hey, that's half the fun right? [It must be time to readjust Dan's meds again - ed.].

In either case, when I can get the needed hardware together and do a RedHat minimum developmental install I see if I can get this thing running. Be aware, however, it may be awhile as I still have a bunch of things to do, like finish painting our front house, changing the shower head and vanity faucet in the back house guest bathroom, refinish the coffee table and end tables, and finding a good over-under to fling some shot at the proverbial partridge in a pear tree.

A big mahalo to Dave for the link!

Wall-to-Wall. With a new, larger flat-panel LCD monitor at work, I need to get higher resolution wallpapers. One of my favorite spots is the Hubble telescope gallery (see it here). They have wallpapers to 1280X1024 (which is what I'm running). If you're interested in astronomy, or awesome images of the universe, and haven't been there before take a look. If you have your own sites that have great wallpapers let me know and I'll try to make a list.

Aloha!

Search Me? Our new Dell PCs came with Windows XP Pro. While XP is very similar to Windows 2000 Pro, there are differences.

One of those differences is how long it takes to access other servers via Network Places. Clicking on "Add a network place" in "My Network Places" starts up a wizard that eventually asks for the Internet or network address of the server. If you use the browse button to search for the server, the Novell Netware servers pop up almost instantly. But to browse the list of Microsoft servers takes over 20 seconds just for the list to appear. Then you wait another 20 seconds while you select a particular server. And then another 20 seconds while you wait to log in. You probably spent less time reading this then it would take to get to the server and login.

Some solutions can be found at the Practically Networked site here. As with all changes to the registry, if you don't know what you are doing, don't do it. If you do, make a backup of everything before you attempt to edit the registry. You have been warned. I've tried only one of the suggestion (disabling the search for scheduled tasks) but that doesn't seem to have solved my problem. At some point, I assume MS will get around to fixing this, but until then, XP Pro really sucks pregnant dust bunnies through a collapsed straw when it comes to discovering MS servers on the network.

Does Size Matter? Awhile back there was a TV commercial in which a man is seen driving home from the electronics store with the newest Whizbang 6 computer in the backseat. The man is proudly looking around showing off his new purchase when he sees a billboard advertising the newer Whizbang 7.

So imagine the chagrin of someone who just installed the megabucks 60-inch (~1.52m) plasma display TV from LG Electronics when s/he finds out LG has released a 71-inch (~1.8m) model (see it here). Of course, if you have the money to buy a 60-incher you probably can afford the 71. By the way, it may not be a coincidence that the 71 is one inch larger than the 70-inch model rival Samsung recently announced.

Aloha!

I've used most of the time I have to write this post searching the Internet for MovableType templates I might want switch to. Unfortunately, I can find a lot of examples for other content managers but not so much for MT. If anyone knows of any repositories of MT templates please leave a comment. Thanks in advance.

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!

The first law of bureaucracies is never, ever, voluntarily downsize. Indeed, some would say the primary mission of bureaucracies is to grow larger, regardless of the why the bureaucracy was created and regardless of whether growing larger would have any positive effect.

Thus, when victory against Cold War communism was declared and you had a bunch of billion dollar Trident submarines with no mission the question was never how to decommission the subs. Rather, the military (which may be the most expensive government bureaucracy of all) went looking for a mission the submarines could do, regardless of whether it made economic sense to do it.

While the missions found for these subs (covert insertion of forces, intelligence gathering, and Tomahawk missile platform) may be critical to the safety of the nation, one must wonder if the Trident-class submarine is the most efficient way of doing it?

In either case, see this glowing article here about the conversion of four Trident submarines to the above missions.

While I was working on my Masters, access to the Internet was not just a Good Thing, it was critical to our success. If it weren't for e-mail, we would not have been able to shuttle drafts for our paper back and forth as easily. If it wasn't for the sources on the Internet, it wouldn't have been possible to do research as efficiently.

Hence, I was willing to pay for redundant broadband sources - one being the Road Runner cable modem from our cable TV provider and the other being ADSL from Verizon, our phone service provider. I did this so that if one went down, I had access through the other. And I'm glad I did because several times during the last six months having that backup saved me from a lot of extra work.

However, now that I've graduated, the need for redundant Internet access is decreased. While access is still important, it does not rise to being critical to my professional success. So this past weekend I decided to terminate one of the services.

Which to terminate was a difficult choice. Road Runner was clearly faster than ADSL. Using real world download speeds, the cable modem would typically clock 1.5MB/sec while the ADSL would strain to reach 700K/sec. On the other hand, Road Runner at about $45USD/month was about $10 more (now that Verizon has dropped their rates to about $35/month).

But in the end, the paramount criterion was reliability. For it matters not how fast a theoretical connection is if it's not working at all. Therefore, I terminated the Road Runner because it had service outages on a daily basis. Sometimes, more than once a day. Further, when I would call support to get help, it would take two weeks before someone could be scheduled to come out and check the connection.

So, I reluctantly traded speed for reliability. I am hopeful that someday Road Runner will become more reliable or that Verizon will provide faster speed, but I guess I'm not holding my breath.

Aloha!

Competition is Good. If readers of this site remember nothing else, remember this: Competition is Good. Alternatives that are different are good. Big Business hates competition and loves monopolies because they can maximize profits where there is no competition.

Consider then this site here that notes that we live within a window of opportunity [no pun intended]. Browser Wars I may have been won by Microsoft's Internet Explorer but that doesn't mean there aren't worthy competitors out there. And if history is any indicator, the dominant application today can easily turn into tomorrow's has been.

So, consider the alternatives and determine whether Mozilla, Opera, Apple's Safari, or one of the other alternatives here are better for your use than IE. Consider whether the alternatives provide a competitive advantage to you and your business. If they do, switch to them. If not, don't.

But I think if you do, you'll be better off in the long run.

Making the Leap. A lot of people talk about trust but few actually do. This site here tells the story of Ralph. Ralph sells coffee and donuts in New York city. He has one of those little carts the city that never sleeps is known for. But he operates it a little differently from his competitors. He trusts his customers. Read the story and you'll understand how by doing so, he makes more money than the other guys.

I will be busy through the end of the week so things will be a bit spotty around here. While I think I'll have time to do a post tomorrow and maybe Thursday and Friday, I can't say for sure. I also won't have the time to read e-mail so don't expect timely replies. Check in when you can and see if there's anything to see. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Aloha!

Sorry, nothing here to see. Move along folks, move along.

It's Friday! And the living is easy. Spent the last four days on vacation at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Ali'i Tower in Waikiki. Nice ocean view room, king sized bed, nice sized bathroom with double sinks, big shower, and separate room for the toilet.

I'll have a little more complete post on Monday and hopefully some pics. See you then.

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!

SWMBO and I went on a short vacation last week. From Monday through Friday morning we were at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Ali'i Tower. Ali'i Tower, one of several hotels on the property, is on the beach facing Diamond Head. The Tower features it's own pool/sun deck, whirlpool, and business center. Each room includes a direct telephone line and dedicated fax line. The fax line is hooked up to an HP all-in-one fax/scanner/printer. Unfortunately, Internet access is either through your laptop hooked into the phone line or via their TV. Not exactly business friendly but at least there are ports on the side of the two phones in the bedroom (the phone in the bathroom does not have a port).

Diamond Head, or Leahi as it is known in Hawai'ian, can barely be seen in the distance. During the building boom of the 1960s to 70s, the state bird was (facetiously) the construction crane - being that so many hotels were built to accommodate the increased number of visitors with the coming of cheaper jet aircraft service. Fortunately, there is still some open areas - including this park in front of the Hale Koa Hotel (for the military) next door to the Hilton. Also nice is the wide white-sand beach fronting this part of the village. This is in contrast to those hotels in the heart of Waikiki which are almost right up to the water's edge - leaving precious little beach to walk on.

This is another shot of the park and gives a better sense of depth. With hotels being built so close to each other it is rare in Waikiki to have open space. It is one of the reasons we chose this hotel over some of the more luxurious ones. The park itself has shaded picnic benches and barbecues so anyone can spend a nice day at the beach without being run over by thousands of pink skinned visitors. Speaking of the beach, we were unfortunately there during the time of the month in which the box jelly fish come in (see one account of what happens each month here). So we were unable/unwilling to set foot in the water, at least, not until later in the week when the warning signs were taken down. By that time, we were at our next hotel, but I will save that for tomorrow's post.

One of the things we did while at the Hilton was take a submarine ride. The picture on the left is of the good ship "Discovery" as it docked in front of our hotel (as seen from our room on the 13th floor). The Discovery takes you out about a mile off Waikiki to one of three Atlantis submarines. The larger sub holds 64 and the smaller two, one of which we were on, holds 48. The Discovery pulls up next to the subs and transfers the passengers over in the open ocean. Needless to say, if there are big waves or high winds, this is not a Good Thing. Even on the day we went, with waves in the one to four foot range, it is not something you want to do unless you've taken sea sickness pills and you are sure of foot. In either case, once on board and the sub and has reached at least 20-feet below the surface things settle down nicely (at one point you reach about 120-ft. down).

This is looking forward, towards the captain, and out the huge 4-inch thick plexi-glass dome. There are ports along the side of the sub for each passenger to look out but since I was sitting directly behind the captain I spent as much time looking forward as to the side. Due to the last hurricane that came near the islands (about 10 years ago), the near-shore bottom was pretty much scraped clean of marine growth/coral. As a result, Atlantis spent a fair amount of time and money creating artificial reefs so as to attract fish and coral growth.

The first of the reefs is called "Pyramids" because of the shape of the concrete blocks. This is a Japanese design that creates a series of floors and ceilings that the smaller fish can hide in. Hiding is something smaller fish need to do to keep from getting eaten by larger predatory fish. Hence, if the bottom is clean of hiding spaces, you won't find many fish hanging around. Conversely, creating a multitude of spaces for small fish will result in fish congregating there. In addition, coral and other marine organisms will soon build their homes, thus creating even more places for small fish. And where there are small fish, the larger fish are soon to come. And where there are sea life to look at, people will follow.

This next artificial reef is a section of an airplane. Pictured is part of the fuselage but the entire plane was sunk. Over time, and with strong currents and storms, the plane has broken apart and is scattered in several places. The plane was from an inter-island airline that went bankrupt. Atlantis bought the plane, and after removing toxic materials, sank the plane to create a home for fish. The plane hasn't been underwater for that long so you don't see much marine growth, however, the fish do seem to like it.

This third reef is an old fishing boat that was no longer being used. As with the plane, it needed to be cleansed of all hazardous materials, including its fuel oil and reportedly took much time and effort to do so. The object in the center is a large turtle that has made the ship its temporary home. Be aware that the Hawai'ian green sea turtle is a protected species under state and federal law. Unfortunately, this has not stopped people from hunting these creatures almost to extinction. You can also see the beginning of coral heads, which is an indication that the ship has been there for at least 10 years.

I thought this was an interesting shot of a couple of dragon boats tied up along side the dock. We saw tourists going out in them but decided we would rather have an engine push us along rather than have to paddle this heavy thing! For those interested, you can follow the link above to the history of dragon boat racing and how it has become an international festival. As with many ancient rites, it is based on superstition but has become secularized into what it is today. In any case, the boats are colorful and are something to see when they are moving along at a fast clip. We've seen the races at Ala Moana park in which a rider sits on the head of the dragon and reaches for the flag at the finish line. Even if you cross the finish line first, you must still have the flag grasped in your hands. So it is possible for a slower boat to win if the flag-person is not good with their hands.

From dragons to birds. In this case, some flamingoes and a lone black swan. Long-time readers of this column will remember my run-in with a black swan last year on Maui. It seems the swans are rather territorial and will charge towards you if they think you are encroaching on their turf (or water, as the case may be). However, this particular one seemed tamer and would let people touch it. Being that as it may, the village grounds had water fowl of various kinds populating the many artificial lagoons and rivers. But, they are not pets. Hence, do not think you can treat them as such unless you want to be called "Lefty."

Most people think of penguins in cold climates. But from what I understand, there are more warm weather species than cold. I don't know the particular species these are from but they have a little habitat on the grounds of the village and draw quite a crowd during the twice-daily feeding times (8:00am and 3:00pm). It is during these times that the penguins are most active so if you want to see them doing something other than sleeping, those two times are when you want to be there. It is kind of cute how then line up during feeding and wait their turns to get their daily fish. I didn't have my camera with me but they all line up and are fed one-by-one. Although, there was one penguin that got tired of waiting and cut in to the front of the line. But as far as I could see, there was no retaliation by any of the others waiting. [G]

I'm out of time and this will have to be posted later than normal because I have to get to work. Tomorrow I will have a short post on the hotel we went to on Friday.

Aloha!

The First Lady of Waikiki. The Sheraton Moana Surfrider was the first hotel in Waikiki (circa 1901). As such, it is unique in many ways. I'm talking about being the location from which the original radio show "Hawaii Calls" came from in the 1930's. I'm talking about the old world little things that separate the great hotels from the also rans like changing the floor mats in the elevators, each with a greeting for good morning, afternoon, and evening. I'm talking about having high tea on the veranda in the afternoon. I'm talking about a grand piano in the lounge and an opera trained singer to go with it. I'm talking about a host giving you a lei as you check in.

The Moana is where we stayed last Friday. It was a gift to celebrate our wedding anniversary from my step-daughter. But be aware that since the hotel is old, and if you stay in the original Banyan Tower as we did, you have to understand what that means. It means the rooms, while larger than a standard hotel room, were not designed for modern conveniences like electricity. So don't be surprised to see electrical conduit running along the baseboards. And don't be surprised to smell a certain mustiness in a room older than some countries. And don't be surprised if the wooden floors of the lanai creak a little when you walk on them.

Still, if you want to experience things from a bygone era, this is the place to stay.

Danger Will Robinson. Feel to skip this as it will be your standard rant about ThePhoneCompany. In this case, it's Verizon. Both in its incarnation as a wireless and also as an Internet provider.

First the wireless. I've had problems using their on-line automatic bill paying from the start. It took them months and numerous phone calls before they got their act together and started automatic payments from my credit card. But eventually things settled down and all was well.

That is, until they decided to switch their billing company. That's when things went down hill again. Out-of-the blue, I get a notice that I've not paid my wireless bill. Hmmm. That should be impossible being that I have automatic payment of the bill. But leave it to the phone company to get that wrong.

So I call the number on the bill for these types of questions and speak to someone who says they have no information regarding any automatic payments for my account. Hmmmm. Since I've been doing this for over a year, that seems improbable, if not impossible. So he transfer's me to Finance and someone named "Crystal".

Crystal tells me about a recent change in billing company and how a mere handful of customers had problems - me being one of them. But don't worry, all I have to do is make the June payment and the July one will be automatically deducted as before. She suggests I go to their website and make the payment via credit card. Which I do. At least, I go to their website and try to find a way of paying a single payment via credit card as I am already signed-up for automatic monthly payments. I seem to find a way of doing so but decided to check back the next day to make sure the payment was made.

The next day I check, and sure enough, no payment. Sigh. In addition, my automatic payment plan has now been deleted and no payments are being made. Further, there does not appear to be a way of reinstating the automatic payments. The only options available are "On Demand" payments, which means I have to log-in each month and go through this system that is not working. Sigh.

I wait one more day and sure enough, all the options are back. So I change my "no payments" to automatic payment via charge card. This morning, I get an email from Verizon saying I can not change to automatic payments because I already have another type of payment plan in place. It does not say what type of plan in place, only that I can't change it. But as far as I can see, the plan I have is no payments at all as none are occurring.

I should mention that all during this time I'm getting bills in the mail saying I am past due and they will terminate service. If these cell phones weren't for my mother and wife I would terminate their f*#king service and switch to someone else (which I may do anyway). As it is, my own service is through AT&T. Say what you will about them, but at least they get the billing right.

And now for the land-line side of the story. I get Internet access through Verizon ADSL. The posted speed is 768 down/128 up, or at least, that's what used to be posted. Verizon recently made some changes and their website no longer indicates what the residential speed is. All they say is they are much faster than dial-up. They also used to say how they were faster than cable modems but they no longer say that either (which is a good thing because 768 down is about half of what I got via RoadRunner cable service. In fact, at times, I got between 2 and 3mb/sec. Once you've experienced that kind of speed, dropping down to 768 seems like running in molasses).

In any case, Verizon recently lowered the price of this service, and according to the Verizon person I talked to on the phone, they also increased the speed to 1.5mb/sec. Hmmm. I know that's what they said, but I'm still barely getting 700kb/sec. So the person checks to see if my line is qualified for 1.5/sec and after a short delay, the answer is yes, it is. So why aren't I getting 1.5 or something close to it? They can't tell me, but will gladly transfer me to customer service so I can find out.

As many of you know, customer service is seen as a cost center and thus, something that must be minimized. Hence, while I got a sales representative in under three rings, I am put on hold when I need to speak to customer service. And hold I am for five minutes before I give up.

When will a company realize that I would be willing to pay a little more if they acted as if the money I pay to them runs their business? That I would loyally stick with a company that acts as if the customer is not a disruption to their business plan, but rather is the most important piece?

I am sick and tired of being treated like rubbish. I am the customer. My money pays their inflated salaries. I refuse to bend over and say thank you to service that isn't even of minimal quality.

Aloha!

iPronto. Which TV remote weighs two pounds and costs $1,700USD? The Philips iPronto Wireless Home Control Center (see it here). It has an electronic TV program guide that downloads from the Internet via Wi-Fi connection (PCMCIA slot with removable IEEE 802.11b wireless network adapter included), large LCD touch screen display, and pre-programmed codes for probably most of the A/V gear you may have.

I gotta run.

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!

Verizon Horizon. As most readers of this site know, I began using two different broadband connections over six months ago to have redundant access to the Internet. This was because, inter alia, I was nearing the completion of my Masters thesis and access was critical to my completing it.

Once I graduated, I re-evaluated the need to have two connections, one through RoadRunner cable modem and the other through Verizon ADSL modem. I eventually decided to terminate the RoadRunner service, even though RoadRunner was at least twice as fast, and sometimes three times faster than ADSL.

I did this because RoadRunner was so unreliable, at least in my area. The connection would go down almost every day, sometimes more than once in that day. When I would call for technical support, the earliest a technician could come out was in two weeks. So, for the past month or two I've been living with a "slow" 768kb/s ADSL connection that has gone done only once since I started service (although there has been intermittent problems with DNS).

Recently, Verizon lowered the cost of the service and, this is the important part, increased the speed to 1.5Mb/s! The trick is, you have to call Verizon tech support to request the service and, of course, your line has to be qualified to run at that speed. Otherwise, the cost is the same so it seems a no brainer to request the higher speed.

Having no brain, I called Verizon on Saturday and they say the upgrade will occur within five working days. I hope to report in a week or so that the change has occurred, but who knows?

In either case, if you are a Verizon ADSL residential user at 768k, you may want to look into this as I don't know of any downsides. YMMV.

Cleaning Windows or How to set-up Windows XP in 147 steps or less. DiveIntoMark decided to document some of the steps he takes when WindowsRot(tm) sets in and it's time to reinstall Windows (see the post here). Having said all of what he says, in my opinion, it's still easier and faster than doing the same in Linux due to the installation programs that work in Windows. Upgrading or installing a non-trivial application in Linux is a walk through a mine field. Not impossible, mind you, but make one mistake and it will ruin your whole day.

I'm still optimistic that Linux on the desktop will become a reality someday, it's just not today.

Common Market. I guess it was only a matter of time but here comes the American Action Market (see it here). The first parody of the ill-fated Policy Analysis Market mentioned here earlier this week. Some of what is on the site:

Some of the contracts traded on AAM will be based on objective data and observable events, as on a horse track, e.g.

• the next White House lie to break into the news
• the next country to which the White House will issue an ultimatum, and when
• the next foreign leader to move from the CIA payroll to White House "most wanted" list
• the lifespan of various DARPA projects, such as Total Information Awareness [site] and Babylon [site]
• the first White House staffer to resign in disgrace, and when
• the President's approval rating on the day before Saddam is captured or killed

Aloha!

Where Do You Really Want to Go Today? BusinessWeek is making the case that Apple should, and is, becoming more than a PC manufacturer (see the story here). Indeed, the model being followed looks more like Sony than IBM.

Tim O'Reilly, founder and president of O'Reilly & Associates, says the push into services [by Apple] is a step in the right direction....As software and services become more important -- both to consumers and to generate revenue -- Apple's moves to capitalize on its brand and bring simple, elegant software and services to the Windows world makes sense...

O'Reilly likens it to the same strategic decision Sony made when it abandoned its Betamax video-recording technology in favor of the more popular but inferior VHS: "At some point Sony decided to compete on brand, software, design, and quality. That's what Apple has to do."

Perhaps Apple isn't dead yet.

Going Ape. In the spirit of yesterday's parody site, I bring today's candidate - Primate Programming Inc: The Evolution of Java and .NET Training.

So you want to keep programming jobs from going offshore to India but don't want to pay good salaries to do it? Is that sucking sound you hear the sound of highly skilled programmers in Pakistan taking the bacon from your plate? Well then, switch to Primate Programming at 69 cents an hour.

An Infinitive Number of Monkeys. Let's face it, some people are anal. You know them, the knitpickers. The guys and gals that just have to point out the cliche we just used. But even as a broken clock is right twice a day, and even as area residents clash with police amid the backdrop of pedestrians plunging to their deaths, I guess they have a point.

So I shouldn't be surprised that someone put up a list of what they call "100 Groaners" - words or phrases used in print/TV that does not belong in conversations (see the site here. But don't blame me if officials say the mastermind behind the scenes is creating a firestorm of controversy in a teapot).

Aloha!

Ahh, this is the life. The wind in your hair, the bugs in your teeth. Yes, the life of a dog with his/her head out the car window. But as any well dressed dog knows, you have to have the shades. Indeed, no fashion forward dog would be caught without them. In this case, they are called Doggles (see their site here).

Not only do they look cool, but they were used post September 11th to protect the eyes of search dogs from dust and debris. The site says the lenses are anti-UV coated, made of tough polycarbonate so they are shatter resistant, anti-fog, and foam padded to provide a good fit.

Speaking of Cool. Foreign Policy has an article (see it here) about "Japan's Gross National Cool." The main point is that Japan is in the process of reinventing itself. By moving from the economic powerhouse of the 1980s, that everyone was trying to emulate, to the globalization of its "pop music to consumer electronics, architecture to fashion, and food to art, Japan has far greater cultural influence now than it did in the 1980s, when it was an economic superpower."

Whether this is a Good Thing I can't say...Thanks to Joi Ito for the link.

Turn Your Head and Cough Robo Doc has come to town, or at least to Johns Hopkins Hospital (see the story here).

Billed as the world's first remote-presence robot by its manufacturer, InTouch Health Inc, the robotic system works something like an ultrarealistic video game, complete with a joystick for moving it about. Looking at a computer terminal, the doctor directing the robot sees what the robot sees and hears what the robot hears. At the other end, patients can see and talk to the doctor's face displayed on a flat screen that sits on the robot's "shoulders." All of this is connected to the Internet via broadband and a wireless network. "Many health care facilities and long-term care communities lack the resources to maintain a staff of all the medial specialists needed," says Kavoussi. "The robot has the potential to fill this vacuum by enabling remote medical experts to ‘virtually' consult with caregivers, patients, residents and family members at the point of care, whenever and wherever they are needed."

Somehow, I don't thing the developers of tele-medicine had this in mind...Thanks to BoingBoing for the link.

Aloha!

I see fellow Daynoter Mike Barkman is reporting he has a tumour located "at the opening of the oesophagus into the stomach, and it does extend back up the pipeline for 8 cm or so" (see his post here). Sorry to hear of your medical problems Mike. I hope all goes well regarding your treatment. Know we are all pulling for you.

On related note, Robert Bruce Thompson's mother is not doing all that well.

If could spare come good thoughts/prayers for the two of them it would be appreciated.

Double Secret Probation. Or what should the creator of this toy get? I mean reeeeeaaaally, "Elite Force Aviator" action figure my foot. If he's an elite anything (other than just plain elitist), then an actor will win the governorship of California. Oh, wait.

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!

I had hoped that I could report that Verizon had increased the download speed of my ADSL service from 768 to 1.5mb/sec, as they had said they would in five days. But I can't. I called Verizon on Saturday, seven days after making the original request and Tech. Support (sounded like someone from India) said it was scheduled for today. Oh well, I guess it's okay to tell customers that a service will start in five days when you actually mean nine (if then).

I'll check on the speed when I get home this afternoon and let you know tomorrow.

Speaking of Inferior Support. For at least five years, I've had pager service through a local company that provide superior service. Pages reached me within 10 to 15 seconds of being sent. Sometimes, just to test the service, I would send myself a page and almost as soon as I hung up the phone the page would come in.

But, came the day when the local company was bought up by a national one. And little by little, the local company no longer was. First, they closed all of the local retail stores, laying off all of the workers, so you could no longer buy the pagers locally. Then they closed all of the service centers, laying of all of the workers, so that if you needed service on your pager you had to mail it to the mainland.

Now, the once responsive local company is nothing but a data center in a warehouse in a seedy part of town.

So when I needed a replacement for my pager, I had to talk to someone on the mainland. They sent me a cheap Chinese made replacement for my original Motorola. But only, it didn't work. Of course, this being a Friday afternoon local time, their technical support had long since closed for the weekend.

So I called them this morning and their first line technical support could not find anything wrong. So it is being escalated to their second tier. If only they had a local office I could just walk in, show them the problem, and get another. But no, I can't do that.

Except, I've decided if they can't fix things on their end, and I have to mail the pager back to them, I will terminate service with them and find a local company that has their own retail stores and technical support here. If I can't find such a company, I will simply not use a pager anymore and switch to my cell phone.

Aloha!

Geek Alert! For you non-geeks out there, you may want to skip on down to the next item. For everyone else, here's the story of what may be the longest flight of a civilian radio controlled model airplane so far (see it here and here. Note both sites, but especially the second will probably expire the announcements so get'um while their hot).

The TAM 5 took off from Cape Spear, New Foundland, Canada and landed 38 hours and 1,888 miles (~3,040km) later in Mannin Beach, County Galway, Ireland. Of course, the craft was controlled by humans only at launch and landing as it would have been very difficult to have someone follow the slow moving model plane (cruising at about 45mph). Otherwise, the plane was controlled by an onboard micro-processor autopilot that took its position from GPS satellites and followed a pre-programmed route.

While this is not the first unmanned Atlantic crossing, it is reportedly the first that meets the definition of a "genuine model airplane." Model airplane being defined as, among other things, weighing less than 11 pounds (~4.9kg) and an engine cylinder displacement of less than 10cc.

In either case, this is an amazing accomplishment and all should be proud of their work.

I've always said less, is more. That is, I tend to write short posts, when I write something at all, because I don't believe filling a screen full of words necessarily helps to convey a point. Doing so may not hurt, but it rarely helps.

Some long-winded people can write essays pages long that say the same thing I say in a couple of paragraphs. Does that make them "smarter" or their post "better" because they can write so much? I don't think so, although many do, perhaps impressed by the length of the posts.

But now comes usability guru Jakob Nielsen's recent posting on the subject (see it here). Now, I'm the first to say I don't always agree with Mr. Nielsen, but in this case I do. In summary, he's saying:

Excessive word count and worthless details are making it harder for people to extract useful information. The more you say, the more people tune out your message.

I think as the amount of data we encounter each second increases, we either have to become more selective in what we read or become overwhelmed and tune everything out.

That's not to say long-form essays should always be avoided. But if you want to convey an idea, keep is simple. If you can't do that, then perhaps you don't know the subject as well as you should.

Aloha!

Tomorrow is a state holiday (Admissions Day) so I won't have a post up. In fact, there won't be much of a post today, even though I scoured the 'Net trying to find interesting tidbits to report or comment on. I guess it's just one of those days.

For those who enjoy photography, you might find something interesting at this photoblog site here. If you don't like that one, perhaps you might like PhotoFriday, the weekly photography challenge. And if that doesn't get your limp Leica crying Mamiya!, then try the Theme Thursday site. Similar theme, different day.

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!

Gee, I take a one-day holiday and the world goes to you know where, without the aide of a handbasket.

Speaking of which, fellow Daynoter Mike Barkman got the good news/bad news last week (see it here). You can follow the link to see the verdict so I won't repeat it here, but I am reminded of an old joke:

A secretary walked into her boss's office and said, "I'm afraid I've got some bad news for you."

"Why do you always have to give me bad news?" he complained. "Tell me some good news for once."

"All right, here's some good news," said the secretary. "You're not sterile."

I know, some of you out there are saying how can I be so crass at a time like this? But I think that misses the point.

Mike is still with us. He hasn't gone anywhere, although many people may start referring to him as if he has. While he's here, he's still the same person he was week ago. The same man with the positive attitude that has weathered the storms that life has sent his way. Just because he has a time frame to deal with (as we all do, whether we realize it or not) doesn't mean he's lost his sense of humor.

So lighten up a bit and celebrate a life well lived.

My Wallpapper for the week is from NASA's Earth Observatory page here. The image was taken aboard the International Space Station by astronaut Ed Lu using the now discontinued Kodak DCS760 six-megapixel digital camera (based on the Nikon F5 body) with a 400mm lens. The image is of "The sliver of the setting moon and clouds that shine at night - noctilucent clouds...Noctilucent clouds are very high clouds that look like cirrus clouds, but are much higher (75-90 km above the Earth’s surface) than clouds that we observe every day. They are optically thin and can only be observed during twilight hours, when the sun is just below the horizon and only shines on the uppermost atmosphere."

Aloha!

[rant_power="giga-watts"] Is there a role for government in monopoly industries such as power generation? You're damned f@#$ing right there is. I'm sick and tired of being reasonable in the face of people who hide behind "deregulation" when all they want is the unfettered right to rip people off.

I am fed up with leaches who slide behind the banner of deregulation.

I am fed up with industry attorneys and lobbyists wearing the cloak of "free enterprise" when what they want is neither free nor enterprise.

And finally, I am fed up with investors that make life more dangerous for me and my family because they don't care how they make their money as long as they make as much as possible. If you won't take responsibility for your actions, then I guess someone else will (see here how one company is behaving differently, and making money doing it).

See how FirstEnergy of Ohio, and its predecessors have put profit before public interest because it made them more money (in the short run) by reading US presidential candidate Dennis J. Kucinich on Larry Lessig's blog here.

What happened there has happened all around the country. Are you better off now then you were before deregulation? Is your phone service better? Is your bank better? Is there more quality TV programs to watch or better radio stations to listen to?

The open market economy may be the most efficient way of setting a fair price. But efficiency is the enemy of reliability and in certain industries, like power generation or banks, reliability is the critical need.

There is a small difference between spinning the truth and lying. I'll leave it up to you to decide which is which when you read this US House of Representatives site that lists various public policy issues that the current US President has tried to affect by, shall we say, means other than the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth (see it here). Thanks to the Doc for the link.

License to Steal Most software purchased by you isn't really yours. By that I mean you purchase a license to use the software under certain conditions. You literally do not own the software. Go ahead, you can stop reading this post and go and read the small print license on almost any commercial software you purchased. Come back when you're done.

Okay, now that you're back, many of the newer licenses are now time limited. You know the kind where you purchase a license to use the software for a period of time. In many cases, the period of time is until the next version comes out. Then, the license (and the software) would expire and you could no longer use the program unless you paid for a new license.

In other cases, the period of time is set. That is, you can use it for one or two years after which you must buy another license, even if there have been no changes to the program. In most cases, the company will probably do a token update to give their marks customers the impression that they are getting something new for their money but not necessarily so.

This model essentially locks you into paying for the same service for the rest of your natural life. Contrast this with, for example, your buying a car or home. In these instances, when you finish paying off the loan, the car or home is yours. You own it and can do what you will with it. Under the license model, you never own the product. To continue the analogy, this would be a lease on a property or auto. You pay and pay, but never own.

As you would imagine, most people prefer to own what they pay for rather than leasing. And within the bounds of what you can afford, you have the choice. But what happens if you could no longer have that choice? What would you do if you could no longer own your home or car? How would things be if you were forced to lease them for ever and you could never own either?

Well, that's where we seem to be heading with software. As the industry matures and the growth potential curve levels off, companies are looking for ways to keep the money rolling in. Hence, many software companies are now switching to licenses that expire and force you to continuously pay them money, even if there have been no updates/upgrades.

I realize that if a commercial company doesn't make a profit it can not exist. But I also know when I'm being ripped off, and licensing positively reeks of this.

So, while you still have a choice, take a look around and see if you can't find alternatives to companies that see you not as a customer but instead as an open wallet to be plundered.

[rant=off]

Aloha!

There's a brief article from the UK Independent (see it here) that says the speed of modern communications is reducing the take Hollywood makes on its looser movies. In this case, they're talking about instant messaging and teenagers linked by cellphones.

In years past, it would take a day or two before the smell of a stinker would spread. Now, while the first viewers are still in the theater they are messaging their friends with a thumbs down. Obviously, if Hollywood would produce better movies the instant word of mouth could work to help them but this seems to have escaped the brains of the moguls.

In local news, some who feel it is legal to discriminate against others based on race went into hyperdrive yesterday when a federal judge ordered the private Christian Kamehameha Schools (founded in 1887) to enroll a non-Hawaiian student.

The case is a very complex one and this is just a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction. Yet to be decided is the underlying constitutional question of the school's controversial admissions policy that gives preference to students of Hawaiian ancestry based on the will of the late Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop.

One point of view is that since this is a private school, and accepts no federal funding, they should be able to have whatever admissions policy they wish to.

But the counter view is that constitutional protections do not end at the school gate. Hence, if there is illegal discrimination the long arm of the law could and should intrude into the operations of the school.

Whether this case will be the one to break the will of the princess I don't know. But if it isn't, there will be other test cases and I think eventually one will do so.

In my opinion, the trustees of the school should be preparing for that day rather than being dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century.

Disclosure: I attended the Kamehameha Schools for a short time but did not graduate from there.

Aloha!

Disclaimer: Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental. (Insert my disclaimer here and the standard one here)

One blogger seems to be saying people are just people and you can't expect them to learn how to do everything themselves. His examples include how most people would call a plumber when they had a plumbing problem rather than, I suppose, try to fix it themselves.

I agree there is a time to do that, but I think each of us needs to have a minimum amount of understanding of how things work. So, to a certain degree, yes you must learn how to do everything. At least, everything you need to get what you want.

Let me give you a purely hypothetical analogy that is not based on any person, living or dead, in the past, present, or future. Suppose someone buys a shiny new Mercedes S600. While they may be rich, that doesn't mean they know anything about how cars operate. But the salesperson shows how to do the basics like opening the door, starting the car, and putting it in gear. In other words, the bare minimum that anyone needs to know how to get the car ready to go.

But, for whatever reason, the new owner can't seem to understand the part about opening the door. I mean, why does she have to use a key, especially one made specifically for this lock? Why can't all locks be the same so that all keys would open them? That would make life much simpler for the owner as she wouldn't need to remember where she put her keys. Better yet, have no locks at all! Why do we need locks anyway, all they do is slow her down from getting in. Clearly, locks do not facilitate her desire critical need to drive the car.

But, with the help of the salesperson she drives off the lot and takes her car home. The next day, she wants to go shopping but can't seem to figure out how to open the door. Clearly, the problem is with the door since she is rich and, by her definition, she can never be the problem in any situation. She demands that the car dealer install a new lock - which, the dealer wanting to please their rich customer, does.

Of course, this doesn't solve the problem because she still can't open the door. Well, clearly the problem must be in the poor workmanship of the dealer when they installed the new lock. Surely the problem is not with the owner so she has her lawyer write a demand letter stating the entire door must be replaced. Again, the dealership wanting to keep their rich customer, does so.

But heck if she still can't open the door. Clearly she must have a "lemon". So she fires her original lawyer because clearly he is incompetent, bad mouths him to all her rich friends, and has a new law firm sue the dealership.

So what's my point? Think about PC security. If you don't know what a network is, if you don't know why passwords are required, if you don't even understand what the fuss is about security - YOU WILL NEVER FEEL THE NEED TO LEARN ANYTHING ABOUT IT. And as long as you feel that way, you will make life less bearable for the others that do understand.

Well, you say, so what? What does it matter to me? It matters to me because I'm the guy that has to figure out what is going wrong and fix it. Even as the the person who is having problems is giving me information that has nothing to do with what is wrong. No, the network does not have to be reinstalled. No, Lotus Notes does not need to be reinstalled. No, Windows is working as designed. No, I installed all of the above in working order before I set the PC on your desk.

What you have to do is reset an expired password.

If you don't understand, at least at a functioning level, how things work, please realize the problem lies within you, not everyone else. Any resemblance to someone with brains, living or dead is purely coincidental.

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!

The specific image is of Mr. Tom Kobayashi, an internee at Manzanar.

Many of the images are available as medium resolution jpegs and/or high resolution tiff files for free download. Note that the tiff files can be as large as almost 20MBs so pause and reflect on this before clicking on one of them. Note also that you can purchase 8 X 10 inch or 11 X 14 inch archival quality prints from the negatives directly from the Library of Congress for something like $60US. This is a bargain seeing that Adams prints regularly sell for $175 and originals, printed by Adams, run as high as $40,000.

Another source of Adams's prints is the University of California Fiat Lux collection here. The collection includes 1,761 images from a book commissioned by the University of California to commemorate its centennial celebration. From start to finish Adams took four years to complete the task of photographing the various campuses.

Photo Credit: 87.27.6.UCSD.11.10 - Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, long wharf, sculpture of native american plaque. Contemporary Image from Original Negative by Ansel Adams, UCR/California Museum of Photography, Sweeney/Rubin Ansel Adams Fiat Lux Collection, University of California, Riverside.

And finally, over 200 images from an effort for the US Department of the Interior to document the western national parks see it here. The title for this one is: Erupting, against dark sky, "Old Faithful Geyser, Yellowstone National Park," Wyoming. (vertical orientation).

You can directly search the US National Archives & Records Administration here for this and other items.

I don't know if I've mentioned it here or not but Adam's images of the national parks, especialy Yosemite and Yellowstone are my favorites. I bought a print from the Adams Gallery called "Moon and Half Dome" (see it here) a couple of years ago. If I had the money, I'd get a bunch more.

Fair and Balanced. Not. I'm heartened to see that comedian Al Franken's new book "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right" has its sales boosted by the misguided lawsuit filed by Fox News (see the story here).

This story is filled with irony. Who would of thought a news organization, protected by the First Amendment to the US Constitution, would try to institute prior restraint on a work like Franken's? And Hollywood could not have written a character more full of himself than one of their spokesman who said; "the network was 'considering its options' on whether to pursue the case. 'We don't care if it's Al Franken, Al Lewis or "'Weird Al'" Yankovic,' he said. 'We're here to protect our trademark and our talent.'"

Talent. Is that how they view their reporters?

Aloha!

Striking Out. The morning commute today is more of an adventure then most days due to a bus drivers strike (see one short account here). Traffic, which is usually very heavy because of our overloaded highways, began slowing down even earlier than normal. Of course, it is purely coincidental that the strike was set to start on the first day of public school getting back in session. See some of the traffic cams here to see how things are going, or not, as the case may be.

Apply Yourself. Follow this link here to a paper on applied learning. That is, a paper that tries to make a link between a theory of learning and how to apply what it infers.

The human mind evolves by arranging perceptions by means of connections. Applied to learning, this means that it is important to understand how the mind makes connections, at different moments in time, and to develop tasks and learning experiences that complement the connection patterns and preferences. This paper outlines some of the categories around which adults perceive and to develop connections, and offers practical applications for online learning within the framework of those categories.

Aloha!

Is that an Antares in your pocket or do you just have perfect pitch? Since before music went digital, singers have tried to make their voices sound better than they were. Whether it was using their own voices to sing harmony with to creating huge rooms to act as echo chambers, singers and their record producers have tried to make the proverbial silk purse out of a sows sighs.

Comes now the latest in computer digital magic, the autotuner (see the story here)

With musicians on the road touring for weeks on end, the autotuner has become a safety net that catches the occasional clinker on days when their voices may be off. (In a nutshell, the autotuner is told what key the vocal is in and analyzes the wave form in real time. If the singer is off-key, it will adjust the pitch to the closest note in that key.)

I'm not sure which would be worse, having a singer lip-synching to a perfect recording or having them singe live but through so much digital processing that they might as well be lip-synching. I guess the question becomes at what point does a live performance cross-over?

Global Warming: Superstition or Science? See this review of the book Taken by Storm:

One errant public metaphor discussed in Taken by Storm describes the earth's climate as a greenhouse. The air's content of carbon dioxide, methane and other infrared-absorbing gases emitted by human activities has increased, especially in the last 50 years. The increase in the amount of gases in the air acts to keep a fraction of energy in the climate system that would have otherwise escaped to space. In the simplified scientific starting point, that added energy should result in some global warming.

But the climate system does not act like a greenhouse, which mechanically blocks the flow of air, and thus keeps the enclosed air warm.

Climate is not that simple. It is a rich, nonlinear system where small changes in one of its many elements or variables may cascade to greatly affect others. Compound that with millions of variables, many interacting significantly with each other as one, two, then more, respond. Intricate computer simulations try to incorporate what is known in order to get to the important point: how the climate responds to the relatively small amount of energy added by the air's increased carbon dioxide content. But the climate system is not yet sufficiently known, and therefore, the simulations include uncertainties and their consequences as they cascade through the equations. [emphasis in the original]

Aloha!

A Jedi Knight would you be? Careful be you what you seek. See the clone tapes of the guy who was just goofing off playing Jedi knight but was unfortunate enough to have taped what he was doing and had some "friends" who uploaded it to the Internet. See the "Star Wars Kid" and the Clone Tapes here. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Speaking of Physics. Stupid movie physics that is, or as Hollywood producers would call it, enhanced effects. This site here debunks a lot of the special effects you see in movies. From guns that fire thousands of rounds without having to reload their 30-round magazines to people running through plate glass windows without getting cut to shreds, this site has it all.

Aloha!

I'm at home today making this a long US Labor Day holiday. But there is no rest for the weary as I am still painting the interior of our front house. I hope to be done within a week but that depends on how tired I get.

In the mean time, check out any of the other Daynoters and perhaps Doc Searls.

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha

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!

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!

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'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 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.

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!

Awe and Shock. This report here says a company has come up with a math processor that does 25 gigaflops. They go on to say if you stuffed a PC with 24 of these things (pretty hard to do in many PCs since you would reportedly need six PCI slots, something rather rare), at a cost of $25,000USD, you would have a desktop computer equal in power to one of the top 500 in the world. Or not. Depends on whether they actually produce any silicon.

Excess and Stupidity. If four is okay, six is good, eight better, and 12 the best, then what do you call a car with 16 cylinders displacing 13.6 litres? Call it a Cadillac. That last bastion of incredibly bad taste has a concept car (see it here) that puts out 1,000 hp/745 kW. I am at a loss of words for describing how ugly this car looks so I will say no more.

Speaking of Retro. Ford is creating a replica of their storied Le Mans winning GT40 and calling it the Ford GT. This one has half the cylinders and half the horse power of the Cadillac but will probably run rings around the Caddy due to its lighter weight and much better handling. See the Ford here.

AWGTHTGTATA. Not if you know what that means you don't. If you don't, feel free to check out yet another listing of Internet acronyms here. B4N.

Aloha!

Bidirectional, multiplexed backplane exhaustion. Yet another IT excuse generator can be found here. I was going to make a snide remark about our IT people being too dumb overworked to use one of these things but that would be mean. So I won't.

Not much going on in the Seto Shack today. We're still waiting for the plumbing contractor to finish the replacement of our shower/tub that started on the 17th of last month. I knew it would take longer than the contractor said it would but its been one month and it's still not finished. Sigh.

By the way, note to fellow Daynoter Brian Bilbrey, I keep forgetting to tell you that, if you haven't already, to evaluate your car insurance now that you are getting a house. I know it sounds strange to say you need to take a look at your car insurance but when you think about how a home is probably the most expensive asset most people will have and therefore want to protect from people going after in a law suit, it becomes clear that you want enough coverage on your car should you ever be, God forbid, in a collision. Otherwise, the asset that people may go after is your home. Not a Good Thing.

So, word to all new home buyers, if you haven't already, make sure you have enough insurance on the car.

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!

Ian Lind is a former big-J journalist here in Hawai'i. He was part of a dying breed - the afternoon newspaper. While the newspaper he worked for is still around (in name if not spirit), they cut him loose for reasons perhaps only they will ever know or admit.

While we may mourn the loss of his voice in print, he rose again in the form of a blog (see it here). Not surprisingly, he comments mostly on things journalistic but there is more to the man than that.

For instance, check out his galleries of photos here, here, and here.

But before you think Lind has gone soft in his old age, follow this link here to more muck raking e-journalism than you can shake a stick at.

While I get the impression that Lind would like to be part of big-J journalism again someday, I think he is nonetheless savoring the twists and turns that life has placed in his way. May your path have as many turns.

Aloha!

The second annual Dilbert weasel awards are out (see them here). The usual suspects "win" so maybe it's not as interesting as it could be but I did download a couple of kewl wallpapers so maybe all is not lost.

Speaking of which, the President of the United States is arriving in our town tomorrow. Due to security concerns, his itinerary is not being released by the Secret Service. However, yesterday's TV newscast had a programming note saying they would go live at 8:00am tomorrow to show the arrival of an un-named personage. Said personage would then be viewed at the Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor around mid-morning and later in the afternoon, be seen at a $1,000 to $2,000 a plate Republican political fund raiser at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. The personage would then be leaving for the mainland, in his custom painted Boeing 747, around 7:00 or 8:00 pm that night.

Of course, due to security concerns, it would be inappropriate to release his name or itinerary.

My back has been acting up lately and kicked into full gear last night. It started with a muscle spasm and next thing I knew I could barely walk.

I think it even affected my sleep as I had the Student's Nightmare. You know the one where you forget about your final test in a class until it's already started so you come tearing into the classroom totally unprepared. Well, mine had a slight twist to it, not only did I come in late, but because I did, I didn't get the professor's instructions. Said instructions were that each person had been assigned a different topic to write on. Not knowing that, I did not write on the correct topic.

Speaking of school remembrances, I may have talked about this one before but it seems kind of appropriate so bare with me while I whip it out again. In undergrad school I had to take an introductory class in history. Since it was a introductory level class, and the professor understood it was required of all students, the difficultly meter was set more to the left than the right. In fact, tests were simple regurgitations of as much stuff that you could remember. No analysis. No showing you understood the underlying concepts. Just straight, wrote writing of what you had memorized. The more stuff you wrote, the higher the grade. You didn't even need to write in sentences and paragraphs - bullets or outlines were okay.

As it so happened, I had something like three or four finals in one day and, since I was not the best of undergraduate students, there was no way I could cram for that many classes in such a short time. I mean, there just wasn't enough room in short term memory for that much information so it would just sort of drain out before the end of the day. Fortunately, the history professor had given us a list of five topics that would be covered on the test. Three of the five would actually be chosen by the professor but he would not tell us which five until we were in class. Since I was trying to minimize studying working on assignments that did not return high value for my investment of time, I looked at the list of five, chose the three I thought were the ones the professor would choose, and studied those three. Fortunately for me and my future career, such that it is, I guessed right because if I hadn't, I would not have been prepared to answer any of the others. [Kids, don't do this at home. Go to your friends house instead - Ed.]

I'll be at work today but who knows if I'll make it in tomorrow. If I don't, I probably won't post as I'll be flat on my back in bed.

Aloha!

Read My Lips, No New Tuxes. Ummm, or is it no new Texas? Nope, maybe no new toxins? Nah, it's actually the rallying call of all true Republicans trying to unseat Democrats: "No new taxes." It's what our Republican Governor said just over a year ago when she was running for office. No * new * taxes. Period. End of discussion you money grubbing Democrats who just want to grab money out of our pocket for fuzzy headed social programs.

So how does Our Governor propose to pay for her proposed transit system? Yup. Raise the excise tax (not exactly but equivalent to a sales tax in other states). But that wouldn't be enough to pay for the multi-billion dollar project. So she also wants to raise the vehicle registration tax. But that wouldn't be enough either, so she wants to raise the vehicle weight tax. And the gas tax. And car rental tax. And other taxes to be named later (after, one might speculate, the approval of the project has been slipped pass the voters).

There is no magic bullet. This is exactly what I predicted would happen no matter who won the election. The budget, over the long run, can be viewed as a zero sum game. That is, if you want to spend money on a project, you have only three options: take money from existing projects, increase taxes, or do a combination of both.

If this very expensive boondogle should go forward, I will predict now she will do option three because she will have no other choice. The magnitude of the cost (once you figure in the inevitable cost overruns/graft) is just too large for it to be otherwise.

As an aside, the scope of the project includes the hated, view stealing double decked highway now PR spun as a "fly over." Fly over, I like that. It's what airplanes, miles up in the air do. Fly over. It has such a beautiful ring to it. Fly. As in soaring in the sky or as in free as a bird. This is so much better than double decked concrete freeway. Oh yes, this is so much better. Not.

I hate to blow my own horn but...I told you so. The question now is whether any Democrat is smart enough to realize there is an opportunity here? I will make another prediction - the answer will be no. Why? Because never assume any politician will forgo immediate economic gain (think of the money being transferred from everyone's pockets to a few contractors. Who then recycle those funds to the sitting politicians). This will be a cash cow with enough slop to gorge on for everyone, including Democrats. Even as each of them is slowly, one by one, picked off by Republicans talking out one side of their mouth about not raising taxes while out of the other side saying it is necessary and prudent.

Speaking of Traffic. Our City has those new fangled traffic lights that have sensors built in to detect the imminent arrival of emergency vehicles. Said traffic lights then change green so that the emergency vehicle may quickly, and hopefully safely, pass through the intersection. The traffic light sensors detect a pattern of flashes produced by special lights installed on emergency vehicles.

You can now buy such lights for your own car/SUV/truck/dilapidated run-down piece of rust. Imagine that, never having to stop for a red light again! Clear sailing through town! Never a traffic jam to slow your progress! All for only $300USD.

But wait, there's more! The devices, called mobile infrared transmitters (or MIRT for short), are apparently legal (insert disclaimer here) in at least some, if not many, states. See the story here and hope it doesn't get too wide spread where you live.

Speaking of Being Blissed Out. Neowin has screen shots of Microsoft's 4051 build of Longhorn here. Obviously, screen shots can't tell you everything about an OS but it is interesting to look at. Be aware that most of the screen shots are very large (>300KB) so don't do this without a broadband connection.

MT Feeling. MT-Blacklist anti-comment spam version 1.5 for MovableType hit the wire yesterday. Get it here from Jay Allen's site.

Sorry this posting is so late but I tried to get a section on Apple's iTunes up but just ran out of time. Maybe tomorrow. In other news, Dr. K posted. That's the good news. The bad news is the reason he hasn't doesn't so for awhile is he is getting a divorce. Sigh. This appears to be the second Daynoter to do so. Big Sigh.

Aloha!

The Great Shower Renovation is now over. After more than a month of having to use the shower in our front house, I am happy to say we can now use our own shower. The tile guy came back to re-grout the areas that were cracking this past weekend. We then had to wait 72-hours for it to dry before sealing it. A few hours after than and our new shower was ready.

It is so nice to be back to normal again (remember, there's no place like 127.0.0.1). Of course, we will need to do the same thing to our downstairs shower but I think we will wait until after the holidays for that.

Speaking of holidays, you have 56 days until Christmas. Breaking with tradition, I've already sent my first Christmas present to the mainland so I'm pretty much set. ;=}

Lastly, sorry for the late posting yesterday. I actually had it ready but did not have the time to publish it as I was working on finishing up the cleaning of our front house so we can get it rented out. If you haven't read it yet, give it a look.

Aloha!

The guy who took the photo on the left used to work for Microsoft. I say used to because he was fired. He was fired, according to his post, for publishing the picture on his blog and describing the fact that he worked in the printshop which is in the same building that MS has their receiving dock. His post, found here, recounts how his supervisor said the post had violated security by describing where he worked (the printshop) and that it was in the same building as receiving.

No, you can't know what specific building that is from what he said nor can you get that information from the photo. So it is not a giant leap of faith to reckon that he was fired for something else other than saying where he worked. One could speculate that MS does not want the world to know that they use computers with operating systems other than their own. I know it would be incredibly petty of MS to fire someone because they have evidence to the contrary, but I have no better explanation.

At this point, nothing can be done for this guy. But think about what kind of company you are supporting when you buy your next PC or piece of software. No, I'm not saying your buying decision should be based solely on politics, but perhaps the day is soon coming that making the right decision and the "politically correct" decision may be the same.

As for me, this is the needle that broke the camel's back (insert disclaimer here). I had been thinking about buying the latest version of Microsoft Office for our office. I am no longer thinking that. We can't yet convert over to OpenOffice, because it is still not ready for our needs, but if this is what happened, and there's nothing from MS saying otherwise, I will not buy another Microsoft product. Ever.

Skype's the Limit. If you are into voice-over IP, and liked KaZaA, you may want to check into Skype (see their site here). Their latest beta (version 0.94) came out yesterday and the best part is that it's free. I haven't tried it myself but it sounds interesting.

Press Zero to Exit. CNN Money has a list of 12 companies and the telephone escape codes needed to reach a person, rather than navigating through a maze of directories to reach the person you need to talk to. I hope someone will expand on this effort and let people know how to get around the various automated systems. In any case, see the post here to view the 12 they have.

Mail

To: Mike Hunt
From: Dewey, Cheetum & Howe
Subject: FW: Danger FYI "Warning. Terrorist plot on 28th."

Don't go to the bathroom on October 31st.

CIA intelligence reports that a major plot is planned for that day. Anyone who takes a poop on the 31st will be bitten on the rear by an alligator. Reports indicate that organized groups of al-Quida alligators are planning to rise up into unsuspecting American's toilet bowls and bite them when they are doing their dirty business.

I usually don't send emails like this, but I got this information from a reliable source. It came from a friend of a friend whose cousin is dating this girl whose brother knows this guy whose wife knows this lady whose husband buys hotdogs from this guy who knows a shoeshine guy who shines the shoes of a mailroom worker who has a friend who's drug dealer sells drugs to another mailroom worker who works in the CIA building next to the brother of the guy who cleans the toilets.

He apparently overheard two guys talking in the bathroom about alligators and came to the conclusion that we are going to be attacked. SO IT MUST BE TRUE!

Have a Safe Halloween and a Great Weekend - Aloha!

As you might expect, my wallpaper for the week is from the dslreports site that I mentioned yesterday. This one is a shot of one of those plasma thingies. There are a bunch of others so if you have a broadband connection I encourage everyone to take a look at what they have.

Just when you thought it was safe, the money grubbers have gotten to the US Senate and the likelihood that Internet access will now be taxed grows each day. In fact, as of this past weekend, when the current moratorium expired, the way is clear for each state to immediately impose an Internet access tax.

From what was first seen as a slam dunk, a bill that would permanently exempt access to the Internet from taxes is now in deep jeopardy as special interest groups, like the National Governor's Association, lobby hard against the prohibition.

What it comes down to is these groups see nothing but the dollars they can take from your pocket if they could only tax you for accessing the Internet. This includes nascent technologies like WiFi and Voice over IP. If you don't want to pay yet another tax, contact your Senator and let them know how you feel. Do it right now because it may already be later than you think.

As most of my 11 long-term readers know, I work as a Program Evaluation Analyst for the State of Hawai'i Judiciary. Some of you probably wonder what such an analyst does so I've put together a few short paragraphs, based on what I think are some good definitions from various sources and meshed it with what I think is important.

What is program evaluation?

Evaluation pertains to the systematic examination of events or conditions that have (or are presumed to have) occurred at an earlier time or that are unfolding as the evaluation takes place. But to be examined, these events or conditions must exist, must be objectively describable, and must have occurred or be occurring. Evaluation is, thus, retrospective in that the emphasis is on what has been or is being observed, not on what is likely to happen (as would be the case in forecasting).

Why do program evaluations?

From a global perspective, the ultimate goal of scientific research is finding relations between variables. The philosophy of science teaches us that there is no other way of representing "meaning" except in terms of relations between some quantities or qualities. So on this level, evaluation provides a structure in which understanding can take place.

From a more concrete perspective, program evaluation provides some of the data that decision makers can use when determining what programs to continue at its present level of support, those that need to be modified, and those that should be terminated. They can do this because, if done well, the data can be relied upon to be objective, accurate, and relevant. The data will indicate whether a program is effective in meeting its objectives and if not, suggest where it can be improved.

Such a review needs to be done, if for no other reason, because resources are finite and therefore need to be prioritized. While the effectiveness of a program is surely not the only criteria to be used in apportioning our limited resources, it is a very important one.

But beyond determining if the program objectives are being met, an evaluation should answer the question of whether the results are producing the desired changes (sometimes referred to as outcomes)? That is, are the program objectives relevant indicators of the goal of the program?

Even though the program may be meeting its objectives, that does not mean it is meeting its goal. Hence, a large part of program evaluation includes clarifying goals and objectives. For example, if the goal is to reduce the recidivism rate of illegal drug users, then having an objective that merely lists how many pages have been photo-copied and distributed to users probably will not be sufficient, in and of itself, to determine effectiveness in reducing long-term illegal drug use.

In the end, program evaluation is critical because it gives decision makers the information they need to make rational, informed decisions regarding the status of all programs and a framework within which to prioritize what should be funded and at what level of support.

Aloha!

I'm beginning to become somewhat of a media junky. By that I mean I've added a couple of journalism related blogs to my morning journey through cyberspace. Yesterday I came across the blog of Terry Heaton, He has a series of essays about postmodern journalism and what are the implications for change.

Here's just one snippet:

Postmodernism doesn't make sense. Its roots are buried in chaos and chance. Taking a page from MTV's playbook and inserting it into CNN's is like trying to mate a lion with a sheep in order to produce a more gentle lion. Excitement and anticipation? Oh sure, but ultimately the lion just ends up with a tasty meal.

Thanks to Ian Lind for the link.

Busy day today so I gotta go. Have a good one.

Aloha!

"War is a horrible, horrible, horrible thing. There is nothing good about it. But it is sometimes necessary. And so somebody better be good at it." An excerpt from a speech at the US Air Force Academy in 1999 by an Air Force veteran of Gulf War I. He recounts the things that he remembers most about operation Desert Storm. Some are sights, some like the sample paragraph below, are sounds. All are about ordinary people doing extraordinary things. If you have the time, follow the link and read the whole thing. Thanks to Dr. Pournelle for the link.

The other unforgettable thing I heard came after the ground war had started. An F-16 was shot down in the middle of the retreating Republican Guard, and I mean right in the middle of them. A call went out from AWACS for any aircraft with ordnance remaining and the fuel to get to where the pilot was down, in case they needed 'em for SARCAP. A lot of people responded, but the first one I really paid attention to was an Army Chinook helicopter pilot, who came on the radio and said, "Look, I've got this much gas, here's my location, I can be there in that many minutes, give me his coordinates-I can pick him up." Now, everybody knew where the Republican Guard was, and everybody knew the downed pilot was right in the middle of them. You gotta remember a Chinook is about the size of a double-decker London bus with props on it. And it doesn't have guns! We kid around a lot about interservice rivalries, but I guarantee you I would follow that Army helicopter pilot into combat...and I'll never forget her voice...

And now for some humor:

An Army General, a Marine General and a Navy Admiral are all sitting around discussing whose's service is better and whose troops are the bravest?

The Admiral (well into his second or third ice tea) announces to the group, " My SEALS are the BEST in the world and to prove it I'll have one do the impossible" as he reaches for the phone.

Well the other two commanders are in an uproar and each one promptly calls for his best soldier.

When all three representatives have arrived, the Admiral states "Since it was my idea, I'm first" and turning to the SEAL, he says " I want you to go down that cliff, swim across those 10 miles of shark infested waters, climb up that shear cliff and return with with 2 bird eggs... unbroken of course.".

The SEAL (being the highly trained soldier that he is) turned running towards the cliff. After performing a triple-somersault into the water, the SEAL swam across the 10 miles (all the while beating off sharks with his bare hands) and reaching the far cliff, he began climbing. Near the top of the cliff, he grabs the two eggs and starts back down (all the time, fighting off mean birds). Upon reaching the sea he swims back across (once again fighting off sharks) and climbs back up the first cliff. He then runs back over to the Admiral and hands him the 2 unbroken eggs.

The Marine General says "that wasn't nothing," and turning to the Force Recon Marine he says " I want you to go down that cliff, swim across those waters, climb that other cliff,then move across the 4 miles of unmapped jungle and bring me back 2 eggs from the mountain on the other side of the jungle."

And with that the Force Recon moved-out. Traveling down the cliff, swimming across the sea, climbing the far cliff, moving through the jungle and upon reaching the 2 eggs, he heads back (all the while fighting off lions, tigers, bears, sharks, and mean birds). Finally reaching the General, the Marine hands him the eggs.

The Army General then says "Very nice gentlemen, but heres true bravery" and turning towards his BEST (an Airborne Infantryman), he says "I want you to go down that cliff, across that sea, up the far cliff, through the 4 miles of unmapped jungle, over the mountain and bring me back 2 eggs from the forest on the other side."

The Paratrooper looks at the General, then the cliff, and again back to the General, where he says "SCREW YOU SIR!", renders a proper hand salute and walks away.

The General turn towards the other two (both with their jaws on the table) and says "Now gentlemen, thats BRAVERY."

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!

As is usual around this time of year, things are getting a little busy. Most of this is tied to the legislature starting up in a few months. So in order to be ready for that, we have to start now. Right now I'm working on some salary projections based on various scenarios using escalators such as the Consumer Price Index, what other jurisdictions pay, and what local employers are paying. Setting salaries is a touchy subject so I will say no more.

In addition, tomorrow is a US holiday (Veteran's Day) so no post for tomorrow.

Aloha!

Speaking of Salaries (as I was in Monday's post). CBS MarketWatch has the Top 10 Most Overpaid Jobs. From wedding photographer to mutual-fund managers. From airport skycaps to real estate agents.

Jakob Nielsen, Mr. Usability himself, has his own top 10 list. Ten Most Violated Homepage Design Guidelines (the first should have been to keep headlines to fewer words - Ed.). From frozen design layouts using tiny type sizes to meaningless graphics to having a link to the home page on the home page.

RU Tuned In? Over at Time, they have their Invention of the Year. I guess, not so strangely, the invention is not really a thing, but a service. As in Apple's iTunes. Runner ups include camera phones, Dean Kaman designed water distiller, Robo-Lobster and Robo-Cat (I'm not making this up).

Another busy day working on spread sheets with various salary projection scenarios so I gotta go.

Aloha!

The New Despotism. Read this interview with author Gore Vidal on Franklin, Hamilton, Jefferson, Adams, and do I dare use his name in the same company as these giants of U.S. history, George Bush.

In this context, would any of the Founding Fathers find themselves comfortable in the current political system of the United States? Certainly Jefferson wouldn't. But what about the radical centralizers, or those like John Adams, who had a sneaking sympathy for the monarchy?

Adams thought monarchy, as tamed and balanced by the parliament, could offer democracy. But he was no totalitarian, not by any means. Hamilton, on the other hand, might have very well gone along with the Bush people, because he believed there was an elite who should govern. He nevertheless was a bastard born in the West Indies, and he was always a little nervous about his own social station. He, of course, married into wealth and became an aristo. And it is he who argues that we must have a government made up of the very best people, meaning the rich.

So you'd find Hamilton pretty much on the Bush side. But I can't think of any other Founders who would. Adams would surely disapprove of Bush. He was highly moral, and I don’t think he could endure the current dishonestly. Already they were pretty bugged by a bunch of journalists who came over from Ireland and such places and were telling Americans how to do things. You know, like Andrew Sullivan today telling us how to be. I think you would find a sort of union of discontent with Bush among the Founders. The sort of despotism that overcomes us now is precisely what Franklin predicted.

But Gore, you have lived through a number of inglorious administrations in your lifetime, from Truman's founding of the national-security state, to LBJ’s debacle in Vietnam, to Nixon and Watergate, and yet here you are to tell the tale. So when it comes to this Bush administration, are you really talking about despots per se? Or is this really just one more rather corrupt and foolish Republican administration?

No. We are talking about despotism. I have read not only the first PATRIOT Act but also the second one, which has not yet been totally made public nor approved by Congress and to which there is already great resistance. An American citizen can be fingered as a terrorist, and with what proof? No proof. All you need is the word of the attorney general or maybe the president himself. You can then be locked up without access to a lawyer, and then tried by military tribunal and even executed. Or, in a brand-new wrinkle, you can be exiled, stripped of your citizenship and packed off to another place not even organized as a country — like Tierra del Fuego or some rock in the Pacific. All of this is in the USA PATRIOT Act. The Founding Fathers would have found this to be despotism in spades. And they would have hanged anybody who tried to get this through the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. Hanged.

Seti call home. Those of you using seti@home may want to update your software to version 3.08. It seems there is a buffer overflow condition that could be exploited by an attacker. Said attacker would then be able to execute arbitrary code on your PC. In other words, the l33t hax0rs would ownz U.

ZDNet has a story on subpoenas filed in U.S. District Court in Utah against Linus Torvalds, Richard Stallman, The Open Source Development Labs, and others. The subpoenas are part of SCO's suit filed in March alleging that IBM illegally incorporated trade secrets from UNIX into Linux. IBM responded with its own set of subpoenas in October and now SCO is responding with more legal filings.

In my opinion, it is difficult to see the good that will come of this. SCO insists they are merely protecting their intellectual property rights, as well they should. However, there appears room for interpretation as to what rights SCO may have as it pertains to UnixWare and Linux. One must also remember that SCO views Linux as a competitor to UnixWare, and as such, these legal moves appear more as a business strategy to remove such competition than protecting their rights. YMMV.

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!

For you gardeners out there, and you know who you are, comes the latest from that Tasmanian devil Jonathan Sturm. His The Pompous Git's Guide to Gardening, the Universe and Everything! can be read by following the link. "WARNING! This book contains graphic and explicit descriptions of traditional agricultural and horticultural practices, including seed sowing, harvesting, cultivation of the soil and weed control!" You have been warned so don't come crying to me if hair starts to grow on your hands after reading this. ;>

The Houston Chronicle says NASA is finally getting around to creating a long-term plan that would return astronauts to the moon and then on to Mars. The first order of business is to get the shuttle flying again. Next is a replacement for the shuttle called the Orbital Space Plane and the completion of the International Space Station.

According to a TechCentral column, MP3.com is soon to be dead. MP3, the premier site for discovering music from independent bands, created a marketplace where everyone could listen to and legally download music. It was sort of the Internet equivalent of the small college radio station that played anything and everything. It was a place to discover music that you would not otherwise have heard anywhere else, much less the homogenized mega-commercial mega-radio stations of today.

Perhaps it was ahead of it's time, with a business plan that rode the wave of the dot com debauchery, but it will be missed because what is replacing it will not have the same feeling.

Paging AirIndia passenger Arheddis Varkenjaab, that's passenger Arheddis Varkenjaab, please pickup the white courtesy phone. The Sunday Mirror has a story about practical jokers tricking Heathrow airport officials into paging for passengers whose names, when pronounced sound like something other than how they are spelled.

Aloha!

Today is the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S. Thanksgiving can have many meanings. For some, it is the calm before the storm of Christmas shopping. For others, it is a gathering of the clan where the generations come together to share in the bounty of this great land. And for the newest citizens, it is part of becoming whatever it is that makes our nation great.

But for me, 30 years ago today, I was an undergraduate student in southern California. My school was only about six hours by plane from home but it might as well as been a 100 as I could not afford to fly there for such a short time (the school break was typically about half-a-week). So I was looking forward to staying in the empty dorm and eating whatever I could heat up in my rice cooker.

Actually, no I wasn't. There are times when life can get awfully lonely. The holidays are one of those times. At least for me, anyway. Fortunately, a guy I knew from our floor in the dorm lived in town and invited me to his family's home for the holiday. To say I was thankful would be an understatement.

Through the kindness of a relative stranger, I got to enjoy a home cooked meal in an environment that is slowly dying in America: an intact family. A family made up of both parents and their son. Living in single-family dwelling. Where each is loved and cared for and values are more than what Wal*Mart is discounting on sale.

After stuffing ourselves on a great meal, we gathered in their living room and went through an album of old photographs. The pictures were black-and-white and were very old. Some of them were of a time when the parents were themselves in college. The conversation then got around to memories of their days at Loma Linda University (or what was then known as La Sierra College) and how they were friends with some people from Hawai'i.

While I realize this is indeed a small world, sometimes I'm surprised by just how small it is. First they talked about Ross and Ree Hiatt. Mr. Hiatt (even after all these years I still call him Mr. Hiatt), was to become my 7th and 8th grade teacher in elementary school. He and Mrs. Hiatt were married for 52-years before cancer suddenly took her life this year.

They then talked about a girl that they were all friends with. As they slowly turned the pages of the album, I was taken aback when I saw her picture. Her raven hair shining in the hot California sun. The smile, a little timid, perhaps from being so far away from home herself. Her eyes looking so much like my own. The girl who would one day become my mother.

There are lots of things to be thankful for today. I am thankful for a time in which families stayed together, 'til death do us part. I am thankful for Daryl Luthas' (now pastor Luthas, who would have thunk it, rascal that he was?) parents who taught their child to be an open, caring individual. I am thankful to my own parents for making the sacrifices they made so that I could attend a quality private college and be where I am today.

Thanks be to God from whom all blessings flow. And thanks mom and dad, I couldn't have made it without you.

Aloha!

I've been so busy working on the Judicial Salary Commission work that I worked straight through with no breaks or lunch hour yesterday. Even so, its been slow going putting together some salary scenarios in Excel. I can't go into the details but the formulas to determine what a person would make are getting really complex as I nest IF and AND statements. While I think I am good at doing detailed work, this is the kind of stuff where an error can sneak in and ruin you whole day. Sigh. I guess it's better than the alternative...

You can never have too much money or too many pixels. As in 1.09 giga-pixel image made by stitching 196 6-megapixel photos into one 40,784 by 26,800 mega-picture. The level of detail far surpasses anything readily available to the general public. Of course, stitching together 196 images is not my idea of a fun afternoon but I guess it shows what can be done if you are determined enough.

In a related note, there is a new book out called Medal of Honor. The book highlights the actions of most of the living recipients of America's hightest medal for valor against an enemy, the Congressional Medal of Honor. It includes 116 recipeints, each with a two-page spread that includes photos, a brief biography, and an essay on the deeds that earned them the medal. Every U.S. citizen should read this book and reflect on the courage of these individuals. This is courage. This is honor. This is integrity.

Have a Great Weekended Everyone - Aloha!

The soon to be enemy launched his planes in three waves from their carriers 200 miles north of their target. In all, the aircraft participating in the operation included 81 fighters, 135 dive bombers, 104 horizontal bombers, and 40 torpedo bombers. The plan to hit the target was divided into five distinct phases:

Phase I: Combined torpedo plane and dive bomber attacks lasting from 7:55 a. m. to 8:25 a. m.

Phase II: Lull in attacks lasting from 8:25 a. m. to 8:40 a. m.

Phase III: Horizontal bomber attacks extending from 8:40 a. m. to 9:15a. m.

Phase IV: Dive bomber attacks between 9:15 a. m. and 9:45 a. m.

Phase V. Warning of attacks and completion of raid after 9:45 a. m.

By the end of the attack on the U.S. Navy base at Pearl Harbor, O'ahu, Hawai'i on December 7th, 1941, the U.S. had paid a fearful price:

Twenty-one ships of the U.S. Pacific Fleet were sunk or damaged: the battleships USS Arizona (BB-39), USS California (BB-44), USS Maryland (BB-46), USS Nevada (BB-36), USS Oklahoma (BB-37), USS Pennsylvania (BB-38), USS Tennessee (BB-43) and USS West Virginia (BB-48); cruisers USS Helena (CL-50), USS Honolulu (CL-48) and USS Raleigh (CL-7); the destroyers USS Cassin (DD-372), USS Downes (DD-375), USS Helm (DD-388) and USS Shaw (DD-373); seaplane tender USS Curtiss (AV-4); target ship (ex-battleship) USS Utah (AG-16); repair ship USS Vestal (AR-4); minelayer USS Oglala (CM-4); tug USS Sotoyomo (YT-9); and Floating Drydock Number 2. Aircraft losses were 188 destroyed and 159 damaged, the majority hit before the had a chance to take off. American dead numbered 2,403. That figure included 68 civilians, most of them killed by improperly fused anti-aircraft shells landing in Honolulu. There were 1,178 military and civilian wounded.

Japanese losses were comparatively light. Twenty-nine planes, less than 10 percent of the attacking force, failed to return to their carriers.

The Japanese success was overwhelming, but it was not complete. They failed to damage any American aircraft carriers, which by a stroke of luck, had been absent from the harbor. They neglected to damage the shoreside facilities at the Pearl Harbor Naval Base, which played an important role in the Allied victory in World War II. American technological skill raised and repaired all but three of the ships sunk or damaged at Pearl Harbor (the USS Arizona (BB-39) considered too badly damaged to be salvaged, the USS Oklahoma (BB-37) raised and considered too old to be worth repairing, and the obsolete USS Utah (AG-16) considered not worth the effort). Most importantly, the shock and anger caused by the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor united a divided nation and was translated into a wholehearted commitment to victory in World War II.

I was working on this post when WindowsXP died in a blue screen of death. I'm not absolutely sure, but I think this is the first one I've seen since I installed XP. The error report said the ATI Radeon video driver is the problem so I will take a look at that (he naively said - ed). Unfortunately, the lockup took with it some of my post so I don't have the time to re-type it. So if you are interested in 360-degree QuickTime VR panorama images, go to this site here.

If you are interested in the old scifi series Babylon 5, check out this short snippet that says a follow-on is coming.

Boeing aircraft had a reputation for building robust products. Indeed, more than one has flown with parts of the wing missing or with the top peeled off. But the one thing Boeing may not survive is bad management. This Slate article lays out the dirty details on how management worked using two driving values: greed and hubris. It is indeed a sad tale to see Boeing spiraling down to 40 percent of market share. It is even more frightening to read that it could be out of the commercial market within 10 years.

Things at work are, as fellow Daynoter Sjon put it "normal." As in situation normal, all fouled up. So I gotta go. But before I go, congratulations to Daynoter John Doucette in his recent marriage. Congratulations and best wishes to John and Emma.

Aloha!

I have to get a bunch of stuff mailed out to the Salary Commission members this morning so I gotta go.

Aloha!

"The Far Side" by Gary Larson is on my top 10 ten cartoonists list so it should not be a surprise that I got the two-volume, 18-pound (~8kg), 1,250-page hardcover " Complete Far Side" last month. I've been slowly going through the pages looking for my favorite panel. If and when I find it, I'll post it. While the book does not have every panel penned by Larson, it has nearly every one of the weird and wonderful creatures that populate Larson's mind.

On a housekeeping note, thank you (I think ;=}) to fellow Daynoter Brian Bilbrey for reviving the broken BackChannel communications. If you are a Daynoter and haven't received the test message you should contact Brian to get this going.

Aloha!

Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Michael Palin, John Cleese and Terry Jones. Monty Python's Flying Circus is the subject of a new autobiography entitled " The Pythons" (St. Martin's/Thomas Dunne Books). One of my top 10 comedy movies of all time is the Python's "Life of Brian" so you know I'll be taking a look at this book.

This article describes a vaccination strategy that targets the so called super-spreaders. This is especially relevant this year due to the great demand for vaccines due to flu outbreaks in the western U.S. but can be used in any population where disease is spreading but there is a lack of vaccine sufficient to inoculate the entire population. The study concludes that innoculating about 20 percent of a population is sufficient to stop a disease if you can get to the right people.

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!

The State of Virginia Attorney General announced its first felony indictment of a man accused of sending spam. While I think this is a Good Thing, the article alleges the spammer sent [placing pinkie finger next to side of mouth] at least 10,000 emails a day. 10,000? Is that all? With spam filling up my email accounts I figured it was a few people sending a lot of spam. But if it's true that this guy is number 8 on the top 10 list of spammers, where is all the spam coming from?

The first steel beam was put in place in the effort to rebuild 7 World Trade Center in New York. The 52-story building is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2005. Using lessons learned from problems identified in the Twin Towers, emergency exit stairwells will be twice as wide as required under the code so that people can exit going down while fire fighters have room to go up. In addition, in order to keep the stairwells clear of smoke, they will be pressurized.

A 17-year-old New Zealand student recently won the Institution of Professional Engineers award for building his own remote-operated vessel. The 1.5m long submersible has an onboard color camera and external water pumps acting as directional thrusters. The young man already has a couple of businesses interested in his design as well as the NZ Navy. Well done young Steven McCabe. Now get back to your studies and quit cutting classes.

I have a meeting of the Judicial Salary Commission to be held today in the State Capitol building so I gotta go.

Aloha!

A wooden Ferrari? I don't know. To me it looks like a wood veneer but I guess it could be for real. But in the water?

Aloha!

Chevrolet is trying to come up with its own FordGT by pumping up the power in a Corvette code named Blue Devil. The article on the new Corvette goes on to say the answer to all is more cubic inches. In this case, 427 cubic inches (~7 litres) of supercharged power (625hp). The conept car, if it ever goes into production would be out in 2006 and cost about $100,000USD.

Aloha!

For you Lego lovers out there comes this site that shows what the little plastic building blocks can do when you have 10,000 of them and two weeks on your hands. So what did he build? The scultpture of Homer Simpson stands four feet tall (~1.2m), that's what.

My wallpaper this week is from the Cal Tech/NASA/Jet Propulsion Lab Spitzer Space Telescope.

Launched Aug. 25 from Cape Canaveral, Fla., the Spitzer Space Telescope is the fourth of NASA's Great Observatories, a program designed to paint a more comprehensive picture of the cosmos using different wavelengths of light.

While the other Great Observatories have probed the universe with visible light (Hubble Space Telescope), gamma rays (Compton Gamma Ray Observatory) and X-rays (Chandra X-ray Observatory), the Spitzer Space Telescope observes the cosmos in the infrared.

See the full article from RedNova here.

My wallpaper for this week is from the European Southern Observatory. They did three images of the spiral galaxies NGC 613, 1792, and 3627. The images come in three resolutions (up to a whopping 2702 X 2301, 3.4MB full resolution) and were produced by the EOS Very Large Telescope array consisting of four 8.2m reflectors.

One of SWMBO's favorite TV sitcoms from the 1980s was ALF. So I'm sure she will be pleased that there will be a new show starring the hairy one on cable TV. "ALF's Hit Talk Show" will start airing early next year on the Nickelodeon cable network.

Why are there so many variations of the Nigerian 419 email scam? The answer is because so many people fall for it. No doubt millions of these emails flood the globe with its false promise of getting rich quick by laundering money though your bank account. And even if only a fraction of one percent of the population falls for the scam, the senders stand to make millions.

The latest documented case is this Florida retiree who sold his stock, got a second mortgage on his home, and hocked his two cars. For more than a year, he gave virtual strangers $300,000. In essence, every dollar he had or could borrow. He even bought them gold pens, cell phones and a laptop computer.

The saddest thing about this episode is that to this day, this guy does not think he was scammed. He ignored police warnings that the deal was bogus and instead blames his losses on corrupt foreign governments. He has not filed a complaint with authorities. He is well and truly blinded by greed. A greed so strong that if he could, he would give them more money.

If only the right official were paid off. If only he didn't have to pay so many fees. If only he didn't have to hire an "attorney" in West Africa to help grease the deal. If only he had not fallen for one of the oldest scams out there.

shopping-mode=on; with_SWMBO: yes; traffic-heavy: you_bet

No post today.

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!

Sorry, today is a normal(tm) day so I gotta go.

Aloha!

A belated Happy New Year to y'all.

I'm back at work and there is still much to do so I gotta go.

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!

Job Interviews. Two words that send shivers through otherwise strong people. There are few situations more fraught with possibilities and dangers. But being prepared can make the difference between being hired and being among all those still looking for a job.

Part of the preparation process is being ready for the questions that you will be asked. Unless you are applying at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory the questions won't require you to be a rocket scientist to answer. But you if you don't anticipate the questions, it is difficult to answer them well. So herewith are the top 10 questions asked by employers during job interviews (with hints as to what is a good answer):

1. Why are you seeking new employment?

2. Where do you see yourself in 5 (or 10) years?

3. Why should we hire you?

4. What are your weaknesses?

5. What are your salary expectations?

6. How did you get along with your last boss?

7. Why do you want this job?

8. What are your strengths?

9. Tell me something about yourself.

10. Do you have any questions?

A couple of good links from Ian Lind's site. The first is breaking news from the Onion about porpoises evolving opposable thumbs (in the same vein as the FOO BAR RFC).

HONOLULU-In an announcement with grave implications for the primacy of the species of man, marine biologists at the Hawaii Oceanographic Institute reported Monday that dolphins, or family Delphinidae, have evolved opposable thumbs on their pectoral fins.

"I believe I speak for the entire human race when I say, 'Holy f*ck,'" said Oceanographic Institute director Dr. James Aoki, noting that the dolphin has a cranial capacity 40 percent greater than that of humans. "That's it for us monkeys."

Thus far, all the opposable digits encountered appear to be fully functional, making it possible for dolphins-believed to be capable of faster and more complex cogitation than man-to manipulate objects, fashion tools, and construct rudimentary pulley and lever systems.

"They really seem to be making up for lost time with this thumb thing," said Dr. Jim Kuczaj, a University of California-San Diego biologist who has studied the seasonal behavior of dolphins for more than 30 years. "Last Friday, a crude seaweed-and-shell abacus washed up on the beach near Hilo, Hawaii. The next day, a far more sophisticated abacus, fashioned from some unknown material and capable of calculating equations involving numbers of up to 16 digits, washed up on the same beach. The day after that, the beach was littered with thousands of what turned out to be coral-silicate and kelp-based biomicrocircuitry."

The second is to the Spin of the Day site. Spin does its best to tell the story behind the story. For instance, a beef industry association hiring a PR firm to spin the news to say it was only one cow, the inspection system worked, and that we have a "firewall" against mad cow disease or the US Environmental Protection Agency insisting that toxic sludge is good for you.

Aloha!