What's With the Damned Fish!?

One look at my dram's place header, or you can see it HERE), you can see I've fallen prey to the dreaded Adobe Flash Dancing Baloney disease (the italics are required). The cute, colorful and superbly animated fishies serve no practical purpose whatsoever. It's visually distracting and where before you could click on the header graphic to return to the Home page now you get to feed the fishies little flakes of yellow food which they rush to consume. I'll have to make some sort of addition to the blog navigation to get you back to the Home page intuitively...

The "Fish" embedded item is a Google Gadget. It's unusual in that it makes use of Flash rather than Javascript, CSS, etc. to create the eye candy. So for now I hope you enjoy the colorful translucent fish. I somehow have to forget all the horrible things I've said about Flash and Dancing Baloney in general.

Where Do They Find the Time?

I find great pleasure when an article or short video allows me to view something commonplace in an entirely new way. This ~15 minute video segment was recorded at this years Web 2.0 Conference.

I will grossly oversimplify Clay Shirky's premise. In the early days of the Industrial Revolution some people found they had a new problem, what to do with this newly acquired "leisure" time. Heavy drinking was once used to waste expend this surplus time. Today he sees an analogy in how society makes use of our cognitive surplus. Trillions of hours are spent around the world each year passively watching television. Up until recently few options to expending this surplus. Now we have the web with uncounted projects were contributors cooperatively create totally new forms of expression. A prime example is the Wikipedia.

There are some amusing comments regarding these contributors from some people who work in television, "Where do they find the time?"

LOLCODE - Danger: Extreme Geek Zone

I stumbled across this wonderful little nugget of nerdly-ness. It may be too geeky for most normal human beings. It also suffers the problem of "if you have to explain it it's not funny". But I almost busted a gut laughing on this, so you'll either get it or consider me beyond any hope of redemption. Skip if you have a life.

Some background, you might have heard of "1337"-speak (pronounced "leet-speek", a bastardization of "Elite-speak") which started years ago for really narly gamers who wanted to feel special. It has a lexicon consisting of shorthand (LOL, ROLF, BTW, L8R, etc.) and the replacement of some letters with numbers (like 1-3-3-T for L-E-E-T).

That "meme" may be related to the LOLCATs meme. If you're not familiar with it I can't explain it, goto http://lolcats.com and take a look. You'll get it or not real fast. Best case you get to see some cute kitties, worse case you could lose your lunch. The whole LOLCAT meme somehow it makes me feel hopelessly old... but I digress.

I was following some updates on the progress in the development of the next version of the once overwhelming popular language Perl. A decision was made to write the new Perl not using "C" or any other existing language. Instead they are writing a new Virtual Machine (VM), which was given the name Parrot (why they didn't use the existing Java VM is a mystery to me). On the VM a more abstract language will be used to write the new Perl. To test Parrot various simpler programming languages have been ported to it. One that was just completed is called "LOLCODE" (a takeoff on LOLCATS). I had no idea exactly what it meant. At first I thought it was some kind of April Fool's joke. But I started reading some sample code and realized IT'S FOR REAL! It's a true programming language (well sorta).

In a traditional language if you want to print the number from one to ten on screen you might write something like:

START
   REQUIRE STDIO
   DECLARE VAR var
   LOOP
      var = var + 1
      PRINT var
      IF var > 10 THEN BREAK
   END
END

---

In LOLCODE it's written (it helps to read it aloud):

---

HAI
CAN HAS STDIO?
I HAS A VAR
 IM IN YR LOOP
    UP VAR!!1
    VISIBLE VAR
    IZ VAR BIGGER THAN 10? KTHXBYE
 IM OUTTA YR LOOP
KTHXBYE

---

If you're brave look at some of the "Examples" given in the left nav bar at the LOLCODE home. Great minds with far too few boy/girlfriends. :)

Sorry for the geekyness. KTHXBYE!

(There is also a good discussion of LOLCODE @ Wiki)

A Rocketboom interview with Andrew Baron

Money for Nothing

Hello, I've been away far too long. Most of you have never seen me in person, or only through a small photograph. Be thankful you missed these last few weeks. I removed my beard after 12 years... it was scary. When I looked into the mirror I was horrified. The face staring back at me was not my father, or even my grandfather, but my maternal grand-MOTHER! Yet another shock I credit to middle-age. Oh, and the beard is coming back ASAP. Maybe I'll see my chin again around 2028. Sorry, I digress.

---

Attached is an [article] from Salon.com (PDF Format, Used without permission). It's an odd type of book review regarding the new work; The Three Trillion Dollar War. One author is a Nobel winning economist and the other is facility at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Before you hang up on me, let me tell you I'm not bringing this up primarily for the political aspects. You all know I'm a geek, or maybe nerd or wonk is a better description in this case. Everyday the astronomical terms relating to monies spent are tossed around the news carelessly; $Millions, $Billions, $Trillions. What do these terms really mean on the human scale?! It's debatable that a human mind can grasp what a "million" represents. So what hope is there for understanding the vastly greater numbers. This thinking gets my inner geek/nerd/wonk all excited, off the couch and onto the the keyboard.

Part of the book discusses "What could you do with a Trillion Dollars?" I mean real stuff, not how many Blu-ray DVDs you could by at Amazon (~35,778,175,313 of them not including taxes or shipping) or how many XL pepperoni pizzas with extra sauce and mushrooms on half you could buy (ah, with CA Tax you get 41,152,263,374. Would that feed Africa for a year?) Instead how could you affect the lives of people in the U.S., or the world? One example given is $1,000,000,000,000 would solve the Social Security problem for 50 years. Or build/purchase 8 million homes. There are more. Oh, yeah, before we forget, you then triple it.

Another major issue appears because the $Trillions being spent are not coming from our savings accounts or from selling off those stocks and gold bars we used to have laying around somewhere in Kentucky. Instead we're abusing our favorite credit card, the People's Republic of China Unlimited VISA card. Despite the cute panda bear in the holographic logo is this a good idea? I sounds alot like my life done on a grandious scale.

That's all, sorry for the rambling, I'm in a hurry so I can't write anything shorter (that phrase blatantly plagiarized from Edgar Allen Poe).

Enjoy.

Stargazing

I had a good night on my little balcony. My apartment is on the northern side of our building. The view is severely limited by other balconies, trees and a hill with bright street lights surrounding and atop a parking garage. Being in the midst of the San Francisco to San Jose sprawl the the light pollution is absolutely horrible.

One of my personality flaws is a desire to have everything "perfect" before I begin a task. Sounds good until you realize you're using it as an excuse to put tasks off indefinitely. This evening I looked outside and decided to stop waiting until I'd found an observing site with dark skies and full views.

I have a pair of Celestron binoculars I purchased while I was attending a Astronomy class at CSM. They are 15x70's(a 15x magnification with an aperture of 70mm.) And were fantastic value at ~$80.

I immediately gave up on using my tripod. The patio is just too tight and with the view already so limited I needed to lean over the railing a bit in order to see some interesting areas. Holding the binocular manually didn't work well either, it's difficult to hold them still enough. The best compromise I found was to use my monopod and brace it against the railing, chairs and table in various ways. I also took my laptop loaded with Starry Night Enthusiast to help me find what might be visible to me.

After turning off all the apartment lights that might shine thorough the blinds I switched between attempting to locate specific objects and just scanning the sky. While randomly scanning if I found something interesting I'd try to determine what I was seeing. When attempting to locate a specific object I'd do what amateur astromomers have always do. Look for guide stars, point and look, use guide stars again, repeat. Using the fact that the field of view of the binocular is 4.4o degrees was also helpful. Around 4am some thin clouds started coming in, so I'd see what I thought was a wisp of a galaxy or nebula, but then it would move. :)

Yet with all the street lights and horrible light pollution I was pleasantly surprised at what I saw. I was generally limited to the area around Cassiopeia. I used the Pleiades (M45) to focus and adjust the diopter on the binoculars. It was low on the horizon but looked great.

I was able to find:
• The Perseus Double Cluster (NGC 869/884).
• The Owl Cluster (NGC 457).
• Andromeda Galaxy (M31).
• The Beehive (M44).
.

I repeatedly tried to find the open cluster NGC 7789. It's listed as being a very large and easy to see object. It had to have been in my field of view, yet I was never able to identified it. I also failed to locate M34 and the galaxy NGC 2403.

While trying to orient myself I got a bit confused whether I was looking at the correct stars in Cassiopeia. Even with the high field of view of the binocular it can sometimes be difficult to be sure what star you're viewing. I kept seeing a reddish hue on one bright star which I assume was not one of the primary constellation stars. Using the software I looked up detailed information and found that that Schedar, one of five primary stars in Cassiopeia, is a Red Supergiant. So even being as color-blind as I am it's still apparent.

Around 5am a very bright object was barely visible to the east, being blocked by the building. Being so bright I was sure it was distant plane. Yet it didn't move. I'd forgotten how truly bright Venus can be. Simply cool. (Update: I discovered that with in nine days Venus will reach it's peak apparent brightness. That explains the exceptional view.)

The clouds got worse and it got very late or should I say early. I'm sure I will be spending time outside again very soon. I also start looking for a real observing site.

Game: Ticket to Ride

My partner hosts an informal group of board-game players, Gaymerbears, we tend to get together about three times a month. It's one of our best totally domestic activities. People bring whatever games they enjoy. It tends to focus on games more sophisticated than say "Risk", but less complex than turn-based strategy games (such as those created by Avalon Hill.) It is also a great break from human-free video games.

The evening we tried something new, "Ticket to Ride" by Days of Wonder. On a simple map of the United States and southern Canada your goal is build rail lines between cities. Each player has a number of secret tasks to connect certain cities. Points are awarded during the game by building rail track segments. At the end of the game additional points are awarded or subtracted by how well you've met your secret goals.

There are several aspects of this game that I find better than similar games I've played in the past, such as Empire Builder. The rules are rather simple. Unlike most boardgames a player is only allowed to perform only one simple task during their turn. They may collect cards or build track but not both. This leads to much faster gameplay. If you let your mind wander you're suddenly find everyone staring at you waiting. I'm going to look into modifying the rules of some other games and try this "simplification".

By far the best part is that while your most important goal is to join your cities you have many opportunities to screw over your fellow players! You can guess at your opponents target cities and then try to shut them out. You can build some rail tracks and then heard a stream of obscenities from around the table - priceless!

Still Plodding Along

I've written a bit about what is happening at school over on my other rarely updated blog here.

Another Semester Nearly Bites the Dust

It's been such a long time I felt I needed to say something. I'm still in school at the College of San Mateo. I'm still seeking an A.S. in Electronic Technology. I'm also still behind schedule and with less than two weeks to go there is a sense of barely controlled panic. Pretty much my usual state at this point in the semester.

There have been some changes I have chosen to consider signs of emotional maturity. I'm as overwhelmed at this point in the semester as I have been in many past semesters with the late labs, forgotten homework, even misplaced textbooks. Yet I'm almost calm. This has also happened without the use of any new, controlled or exotic substances. This exclusion also means increased quantities of fatty or salty food. I've experienced a few cravings for high-quality chocolate, but nothing excessive.

I do wish to take a moment and apologize to many of my friends. I've been quite negligent over the last few weeks. You have been so wonderfully understanding and supportive. Once December 15th rolls around I hope we can all get together and catch up. If you're reading this mention it to me and I'll take you to lunch! (I need to keep whatever little readership I have.)

A few of the classes have been a surprise, other than just the face I'm old enough to be the father of the vast majority of the other students. I'll try to summarize some of the high points:

My Biology 100 class has covered approximately 70% of material I was already familiar. Being a geek all my life, loving to read and having an interest in biology has made this easy. The other 30% has been eye opening. There were some areas where a greater level of details were explored. Just the basics of Cellular Metabolism was amazing! If I were starting over, and twenty years younger, pursuing the biological science would be quite attractive. It's so complex, yet the potential is staggering.

The English 100 class was also surprising. I intentionally choose an instructor that felt a little tougher than average. She didn't disappoint in that regard. She is new to the school so is on probation. Thus she's being very strict in terms of following all the rules exactly. The number of pages expected is rather higher than I would have thought of a community college. I also get the impression that the instructor also believe the need to pump out so much material is not useful for keeping up high quality. But being new she isn't going to risk any problems. This has opened my eyes again to the possibility of making writing part of my career. I can't imagine doing it full time all the time. Yet as part of a larger set of tasks it might be a reasonable goal.

The Electronics classes continue. Nothing new. I'm disappointed that I was unable to finish more work on some Incompletes.

Maybe chat again in six months?

A Laptop Just For Me

I've resisted the allure of a laptop for... ah... since there were laptop computers. I used the first generation Compaq Luggable back in computer prehistory. Yet it was exclusively for work and wasn't exactly a lot of fun.

I want to thank my dearest friend Bernard for once again being outrageously generous. I've been in school for over two years and haven't worked in something like two and a half years. Items like a laptops aren't in the budget.

I can't imagine how I ever survived without it. I won't go into geeky details, but it's a Dell Inspiron E1405. So far I have nothing but wonderful things to say about. Much faster than my desktop, large high-resolution screen, good battery life (especially if you turn off the WiFi).

I find myself writing email, working on homework, writing papers and just wasting time web surfing at the oddest times and places. It's great! I was about to replace my cell phone with a used Treo 650, however with the many WiFi hotspots and the power of Yahoo Mail (plus its simple calendar function) I'm not sure I need the Treo.

School is keeping me quite busy. I've found my English Class to be amazingly enlightening. The writing work has been very useful, but the reading has been the surprise. We're making use of a custom collection of essays selected by our instructor. The works are written by a wide array of writers; Plato, Johnathan Swift, Martin Luther King Jr., Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Thoreau, George Orwell and many more. This exposure has (re)opened many doors. I just wish I had more time to follow-up many of these authors.

I'm taking a fascinating class on California History and Politics. Learning some of the history of California explains much about our existing dysfunctional system. Early in the century many good meaning people created laws and processes to reduce the often corrupt influences of the major political parties. Those changes successfully weakened the power of the political parties. Now the power of special interests dominate. I doubt that was the initial intent of the reforms.

Until next time... :)

This Blog in Graph Form

I came across an interesting little Java Applet at Websites as Graphs.

It scans an HTML page and maps out the relationship as a graph. I don't see any real use for this but the images can be fun and watching them unfold is interesting.

You can see an amazing array of websites as graphs at Flickr tagged with: websitesasgraphs.

---

What do the colors mean?
blue: for links (the A tag)
red: for tables (TABLE, TR and TD tags)
green: for the DIV tag
violet: for images (the IMG tag)
yellow: for forms (FORM, INPUT, TEXTAREA, SELECT and OPTION tags)
orange: for linebreaks and blockquotes (BR, P, and BLOCKQUOTE tags)
black: the HTML tag, the root node
gray: all other tags

---

School Dazed Again

Where did the Summer go? This evening is my first class of the Fall 2006 semester, THIS evening... TODAY!!

I'm in a state of denial: My social life will not disappear. I will not spend the next five months stressed out of my gourd. I will not allow my urge to procrastination control me. Yeah, that's right. Let's add losing a hundred pounds, learning Swahili and voting Republican while I'm at it! Damn...

It's 3am, time to try and sleep again. Will need my strength to beat back the hordes of students at the bookstore tomorrow.

Photos, Photos Everywhere

I'm very sorry to say I missed the Dore Alley Fair, now officially titled the Up Your Alley Fair, again this year. Last year it was because Scott and I were both exhausted. This time it was due to a domestic squabble. Dore Alley has alway been my favorite event to take "people pix". The energy and just simple joy that people express is great to experience.

Since I can't turn back time I have decided to start sharing a sample of the over 7000 digital photos Scott and I have taken over the last six year at many events. I've strugged with the how of sharing. With some trepidation I created an account at Flickr. So far I've uploaded a few hundred photos from a handful of events.

I'm a big advocate of Open Source and the idea of sharing. Our nation has become obsessed with owning everything. Major media corporations are doing their best to own and control our very culture. Museams ban photos of classic works because they make money off "official" reproductions. I could rant about this forever. However I decided to put my media where my mouth is.

The vast majority of my photos have been given a Creative Commons license. You should read the details, but in a nutshell all my works can be used to create non-commercial works, provided I'm given credit and the derived worked is also licensed in the same matter. Basically the Open Source GNU General Public License for media.

Please take a look at my photos. There are a few photos hidden from public view. Usually they are of a more adult nature. If you wish to view them you will need to create an account on Flickr, it's free. Then send me email stating you are of legal age to view such material. I can then make you a "Flickr Friend".

I've added a Flickr Profile Overview on the left nav bar of this page, below the archives.

Beautiful Hawaiian Views

I've just returned from a wonderful, if short, vacation to Kona, Hawaii. I did my best to leave the camera in it's bag. Yet there were times when I couldn't stop myself. While on an afternoon cruise, Captain Bean's Dinner Cruise, my weakness for handsome twinks became obvious.

I've starting using Flickr for photo sharing. Here's my first set of dancing boys:

Useful Site: StumbleUpon

I came across this site while looking through various plug-ins available for the Firefox browser. It's a wonderfully addictive site for people that are curious about far too many things and behave like they have some mild version of Attention Deficit Disorder.

If you're using Firefox great, you can install the small icon bar and easily access the site's functions. If you're using Internet Explorer, or another browser you cannot install the Stumble! button directly on the toolbar, but you can still use the primary Stumbleupon site to get the same functionality.

With Firefox plug-in installed the Stumble! icon will be displayed in a new toolbar.

With or without the plug-in you goto the Stumbleupon site and create a minimally intrusive account and select areas of interest to you. A partial sampling of my topics of interest is: Astronomy, Board Games, Comic Books, Computer Hardware, CyberCulture, Electrical Engineering, Gay Culture, Graphics Design, Mathematics, Open Source, etc., etc.

Now when the urge to surf strikes you hit the Stumble! button and you're taken to a site that other Stumblers have visited and rated a "Thumbs Up" within your areas of interests.

At this new page you can review it and give a rating or a review if you wish. My surprise is the high quality and relevancy of the provided sites. I estimate 5 out of 6 sites keep my attention and rate a "Thumbs Up".

I had to remove some of my topics. It's was just too much cool stuff to read. I found myself wasting hours and saving dozens of bookmarks every day. Much like my experience with Tivo, you can be overloaded with riches.

StumbleUpon is also supporting somekind of social networking system. It allows you to select "friends" that share your interests. You can see a "friend's" topics of interest and look at the list of sites they have rated or reviewed. Before you can contact other you need to setup a brief profile with an photo. There doesn't seem to be any rule about it being a picture of you with a recognizable face. Many people use random images and avatars.

I haven't yet explored this function in detail. I'd love to hear about your experiences.

(My ID at StumbleUpon is "drambear")

Am I Real Now?

A few weeks ago I was talking to a photography classmate about how to look like you're a "real" photographer when you are sticking your camera in people's face and generally being a pest?

We came to the conclusion that a set of business cards would be a good first step. So I wondered over to VistaPrint. I took a few minutes to select a simple design. They offer 250 cards free that end up costing about $6 in shipping. For more money you can either access a larger library of designs or upload your own logos, photos, etc. They have developed a very easy to use and powerful web application. I'm impressed.

I chose the no frills version, it includes a small ad for VistaPrint on the back, and the cheapest shipping. They arrived yesterday and look great for $6. I've loaded them into my car, wallet and camera bag.

I found some other great suggestions in Make magazine #5. Titled Fauxlance Photographer it's a brief article written by a professional photographer who uses legit techniques to get access to good views and a bit of respect.

I promise to eventually get some of my photos posted. The last time I checked my database of digital photos was in the neighborhood of 6000 pix. Thank god, and Hitachi, for cheap hard disk space.

No Entries Found

As you can see I haven't added a new entry for well over a year. There are a half dozen "draft" entries, but nothing was ever ready to be published. I worked thorough my feelings and tried to figure out why I didn't take the time to finish an entry.

The reason may be that I'm not as comfortable as I thought with sharing my thoughts with the world. I realize that in reality maybe two people read my entries (that's counting my mother), but the concept is the same.

So I decided to try something different. I'm still in school with my focus on Electronics Technology. I'm happy to say I've found the study interesting and challenging. I realized that some of the new ideas and projects have me more excited than any of my old job's software work had in years.

So what I've done is started a new weblog related just to electronics related matters. So far it's been much easier to keep up my interest there. If you're curious please checkout BlinkingBoxes.com.

Hope to see you there!

School Daze Redux

The second semester has begun and this middle-aged quasi-geek is again walking the campus grounds. I'm continuing with studies in Computer Forensics and Electronics. Due to time constraints I had to drop the Graphic Arts work. Maybe someday I'll be able to follow-up, perhaps a few classes in some area of Fine Arts or Photography.

One surprising observation is that age and experience do NOT automatically translate improved study habits. While not as serious a problem as two decades ago; reading the assigned chapters, completing labs and assignments and physically attending the classes can still be a struggle. I'd hoped that with so many years of getting up and going to the office would have made this a little easier. No such luck...

I'll drop a line here from time to time between problem sets. :)

Faux Hearst Castle Brochure

One of our projects in Graphic Design 210 was to create a brochure. It was to be printed on both sides of a standard 8½x11 inch paper, then folded into equal thirds. We were encouraged to use our own artwork.

Unlike many others in the class I'm not an illustrator. I do take photographs. Some of my favorite photos are from Hearst Castle in San Simion, California. So I combined information about the Castle and some of my photographs to make a faux brochure.

You can see my final work in PDF format: Faux Hearst Castle Brochure (3.6Mb)
Disclamer: This is NOT an official Hearst Castle document. The information is accurate as of this date, however it was not vetted or approved by anyone representing Heart Castle. This was done only as a student project. I do claim copyright on the final work.

There is a bit of a story attached to these photographs. On July 4th, 2003 Scott and I were on one of our employers enforced vacations. We drove south to visit Hearst Castle.

We ran into some very bad luck on the way. We got a flat about 30 miles south of Big Sur, as is always the case, the middle of nowhere. The cellphones didn't work and we hadn't seen a town in many miles. We got out the spare and began to remove the tire. We where shocked to find the dealer had been kind enough to provide free locking lug nuts, but didn't bother to provide a key.

Nine hours later we arrived at our Bed & Breakfast.

Due to this loss of an entire day we had to make new reservations for a tour of the Castle. Being a holiday it was booked tight. The only available tour started at 8am. Normally I wouldn't even consider getting up at 8am while on vacation. Isn't sleeping in part of the definition of a vacation? For this I made an exception.

I'm now so happy I did. Some of the best photos I've ever taken were shot that morning. The Castle is beautiful. The early morning sun cast sharp shadows and dramatically lit the grounds.

If you've never been there I have to recommend it. Beautiful views and it's amazing that at one time it was owned and occupied by one of the most powerful men of his day; William Randolph Hearst. His taste is art was rather... erratic. But impressive nonetheless. It was a memorable morning.

School Daze

Only by looking at my credit card bill can I truely believe I'm back in school! My last time as a full-time student was twenty two years ago. As a temporal yardstick realize President Reagan was early in his first term as President. (You remember Reagan right?)

I'm somewhere in the second week or so of classes. It's a bit hard to tell since I'm so confused and disoriented. My schedule is a combination of daytime and evening classes. My memory is so poor I need to look at my Palm Pilot several times a day to remember where I need to be and when I need to be there.

If I were 20 years old again I might be able to walk to school from home. It's up a very steep hill, fortunately only in one direction. The school maps are helpful, but the large amount of construction allows for only a few direct routes. If I were 20 I wouldn't have needed to invest in a wheeled luggage backpack. I feel kind of foolish noisily rolling around on the pebbled sidewalks. Yet if I had to wear clown makeup everyday to make my back feel better I do it. :)

I've enrolled in six classes, ~16 semister units, at the College of San Mateo. Since I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do when I grow up I've found myself studying three different disciplines:

The first is Computer Forensics. For those who aren't familiar with the term, I wasn't until just a few months ago, this is the work required by law enforcement to retrieve evidence from seized computer systems. It shares a lot of technical aspect with Data Recovery, but with emphasis on the careful handling of evidence and following the requirements of the legal system. These skills are also in use within corporations who monitor internal usage. This "1984" type of activity does make me a bit ill at ease. Yet it's technically challenging and a growth industry (for good or ill). At the risk of sounding presumptuous, it might be good to have another person involved who's concerned with protecting our basic civil and privacy rights. Be aware of the kinds of possible abuses is helpful.

The second area is largely following up an interest from my mid-teen years. In the late 1970's I was experimenting with both digital hardware and software programming. I was writing both BASIC and simple Assembly Language programs back on a TRS-80 model I. I was using TTL chips to build logic circuits, my final plan was to interface the computer and my own circuit designs.

It's a long story; in brief, due to a faulty power supply virtually all my digital chips were fried. The total loss was probably something like $150. But for a 16 yo in 1978 that was a lot of money. I couldn't afford to replace all the lost parts. Thus I stopped working with the hardware directly and spent my time learning software. Looking back it's amazing how such a simple thing can change your life.

I'm taking two classes to renew this aborted study. One is on DC circuits and one on the basic mathematics used in electronics. While I was a teenager I tried several times to get the hang of building analog circuits using Op Amps (Operational Amplifiers). Sadly my math skills weren't up to the task.

Now we're just getting started and I'm rediscovering the joy of the hardware work. It's going to be a slow process, but I hope I can relearn what I once understood and get a grasp of some ideas that were beyond me all those year ago.

The third area is Graphic Design. I've been working with Graphic/Web Designers, Illustrators, etc. for a long time. I got involved with the web very early, 1994. In the early days the division between the engineering and the content creation barely existed.

My first position as a "webmaster" was at Sybase. There was a small team involved; yet the content was handled by one guy and I handled most of the engineering, systems admin and networking support. There were no Design Teams or endless Marketing Meetings. We just got as much useful material up and viewable as best we could.

While I consider photography a hobby and I've more than dabbled with 3D computer generated images I've had no official training. A number of web designer friends you've tried to point me in the correct direction. But one look at my website and you can see none of it "took". :)

Now I'm enrolled in a Graphic Application and a Typography I class. They are a great change from my usual nerdly studies. I could rave about how the Typography instructor's passion for the artform of the typeface is infectious. I'm just beginning to see the wonderful details and subtlety of the art.

Sadly the introduction of computerized page layout and typesetting has "devalued" the artform. Most people think you just get some free fonts with your computer software and that's it.... I'll rave more about this later. It has been a wonderful discovery.

The Graphic Application class is by far the most demanding of my classes. I'd say it's eating up about 85% of my mental energy and time. The instructor has been very encouraging and helpful. I think she understands the difficulty of an "engineer" mindset moving into something like Graphic Design.

Oh, and I have to give thanks to two friend, Mitch and Jo, I can't thank either of them enough for both their moral support and their excellent advice. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Need to go I have homework to do.

"You've Got SPAM - Again!"

In my June 10th, 2004 entry I mentioned how happy with I was with Yahoo Premium Mail's disposable email feature. I finally felt confortable displaying an open email address in this weblog.

Due to no fault of Yahoo's, I spoke too soon. In less than 60 days the address has been harvested and is being used both to generate generic spam and it as being used as a forged source address.

When the basic email protocols were developed many years ago for the Internet they were created by people devoted to improving the network's functionality and reliability. They worked to create something wonderfully new, fun and even more importantly useful. Many of these people are still alive and must be aghast at how their creation is being abused.

Over 50% of all email is now spam and is increasing rapidly. The cost to global business is already measured in the billions of dollars(US). This does not take into account the general frustration and time lost to individuals. I've not seen any statistics, but I can imagine that for every dollar a spammer earns it costs the rest of us a great deal more.

<RANT>

Not only are these spammers parasites, but they are inefficient parasites. If they are not stopped the damage will be eventually be fatal to the entire system. My first thought was these people must be insane. How can you justify killing the very system you depend on to survive?

It took be about five seconds to realize that we human do this everywhere; the hardwood forest in the Northwest U.S. popped into my mind. The Japanese will pay fantastic prices for the hardwood. In a short time the old growth trees will be gone. Once gone they can't be replaced by those fast growing trees the lumber companies are so fond of. It will take centuries. But hey, those new floors look great!

Massive areas of ocean across the globe have been overfished to the point where there's nothing left to catch. Of course the fishermen are now demanding their governments to bail them out. It not like they could see this disaster coming.

I guess "a penny earned is..." is well, that's it. Nothing else matters. Leaving ourselves a future resource is great as long as it doesn't interfere with short-term profit.

Human greed and short-sightedness knows no limits. This fact has been with us apparently for our entire history. It goes in cycles, right now it's very bad, in other decades it's merely bad. In terms of absolute scale; the amount of biomass destroyed per day, pollution dumped per day, I'm sure it's never been greater.

Ah, but that's just dirty liberal talk... obviously not spoken by a real American...

</RANT>

OK, back to my point.. I'm sure I had one somewhere... Yes, protecting yourself from spam. This is no single answer, it's also all but impossible to protect yourself completely. Yet there are some steps you can take to help:

• Disposable Addresses:
  Use a disposable email addresses, such as those offered by Yahoo and many ISPs. This is probably the most flexible method. If the email address starts getting abused you simply drop it from the list of accepted addresses. It also allows you to see either who or from where your address are being collected. I use a different email address for every major web vendor or group. So far the legit companies have not been selling my address.

  Also according to some reports if you disable an address the volume of spam decreases sharply. It does cost the spammer a small about of money for each mailing so I guess they try to cull the known dead addresses from their lists. Because of this you might experiment with deactivating an address for a few weeks and then turning it back on.

• Spam Filters:
  I tried this both ways. Allowing my ISP provide the filtering. I've also tried to do it myself locally on my machine. For me it's been more straightforward to allow my service to do the filtering. In case of Yahoo their paid services appears to provided slightly better filtering than their free service. At a cost of less than $2/month I 'd perfer to pay.
If you wish to maintain local control of your email you can use software to filter incoming POP3 mail. My oldest email address had been in use since about 1995 and had been placed on websites and newsgroups everywhere. It's probably on every spamlist collection out there. Near the end on a light day I was receiving 200+ spam message. Like everyone I niced a slow increase in the amount of spam received. I just used the Delete button. Once I hit about 25 spam messages a day I knew I could no longer handle the problem manually. I tried some spam blocking software. The first was an absolutely horrible program from McAfee; Spamkiller. I was out about $40 and spent untold hours fighting with it's braindead behavior and McAfee's constant nags to buy more stuff from them. I then tried Norton Anti-Spam software. It's far superior to Spamkiller, yet still no walk in the park. It required a lot of time and attention to delete the many spam massages that did pass through the filter. To be safe I always needed to briefly scan the spam folder looking for mis-identified messages. If anyone is aware of any particularly good services please drop me a line at my new email address listed at the top of my weblog. I love to learn what new might be out there.
• Obfuscated Address:
  Another option is to created a obfuscated email address that should be easy for a human to understand, but difficult for an automated havesting program. If your email address is "joe@nowhere.com" some options are:

• "joeREMOVE@nowhere.com"
• "joe@REMOVEnowhere.com"
• "joe@NOSPAMnowhere.com"
• "joe[at]nowhere.com"
• "joe[at]NOSPAMnowhere.com"

I think you get the general idea. This works particular well on websites. You have complete control over what is displayed. If you're trying to post messages to newsgroups this method my be your only solution other than a disposable address. Checking the newgroups software you're using and see if you can replace your "From" and "Reply-To" fields with a obfuscated address. This method isn't foolproof. I'm certain some harvesting programs have been written to detect the most common variations. Yet every little bit helps.

• Using Javascript:
  (more to follow)

A No Mess Geek

I've built and reconfigured a lot of computers in my life. Installed and setup hundreds of operating systems and applications. Despite all this experience I sometimes want to dabble in something new without spending hours or days building, installing and configuring a system.

I recently came across mention of a CD-bootable, stand-alone, Linux distribution called KNOPPIX.

If you've heard about Linux and have an interest in seeing what all the fuss is about this might be a simple solution. This is one of several Linux distributions that don't require installation onto a hard disk. You just pop the CD into the drive, reboot your machine and you find yourself behind the wheel of Linux. When you're finished you just remove the CD, reboot again and you're back into your familiar Windows environment.

I was able to test drive many of the tools that compete with the Windows "ecosystem". There's the fast, and up-to-date, web browser Mozilla. The OpenOffice productivity suite seems to have more features than I need in a word processing or spreadsheet tool. If there's a Windows program you just must have you can test it with Wine to see if it works under Linux.

There are many fun applications and tools squeezed into the 700Mb CD.

The hardest part is burning the 700Mb .ISO file onto a CD. If you use a CD burning application it can probably create a CD from the.ISO ("Disk Image") file. You can even skip this step by spending a few dollars, usually $3-$7, and order it from a vendor. The KNOPPIX site provides links to a number of vendors.

With only one problem, my use of the KNOPPIX CD went well. I expected problems because I have a rather new motherboard and an even newer video card. The hardward auto-detection worked well. Except KNOPPIX was finding my hard drives but hanging while trying to read them. My primary machine does have a SATA RAID 0 (mirroring) hard drive setup. If that means nothing to you let say it's just a rather unusual configuration. A few minutes reading the KNOPPIX "cheat codes" gave me the command to avoid reading the hard drives and it booted smoothly.

Have fun, geek out. You might find yourself reading Slashdot everyday!

Useful Site: Bug Me Not!

Two day ago I was watching CNN Headline News. There was a brief mention regarding a website devoted to helping people bypass compulsory web registration. These required registrations have become more popular, especially at news sites.

I promptly forgot the URL and I waited too long, so even TIVO couldn't help. Thankfully Slashdot saved me with a listing today.

The site is http://bugmenot.com.

Take a look and you may keep a little bit of privacy.

"You've Got Mail" is (Again) Music to My Ears

Recently the Scum of the Earth,aka Spammers, required me to put an old aquaintance out of it's misery. My email address of nearly ten years. [Insert maudlin violin music here]

I was so naive in the 90's. I published my email addresses helter-skelter across the digital landscape. I wanted people to be able to contact me easily. Every web page, newsgroup and chat room had my ID on display. You're probably familiar with what happened next. At first just a handful of annoying spam messages arrived in my inbox. Then a few more, and more and more. Finally the task that was once fun turned into a chore, and then an impossible job.

I turned to a software package from McAfee, SpamKiller, to help me maintain control for awhile. It allowed me to keep on top of the nightmare of 200+ messages a day. It allowed me to put off the decision for nearly two years.

BTW: This is not an endorsement of SpamKiller. It's a lousy program. It's poorly designed and even more poorly implemented. It's inexcusably slow and has a lot of quirks that are simply unacceptable in a supposedly professionally produced package. If you're going to try and control the spam with software on your local machine look elsewhere.

In desperation I returned to an old Yahoo free email account. I reviewed some of the newer features available to paid users of the Yahoo service. I was surprised how far the service had come in the past few years. With the POP3 support I can continue to use my email client rather than the web interface. If you do leave your mail their servers you can now select any set of messages and ZIP them into an archive file and downloaded. Unfortunately this archiving feature is required due to the very limited disk space Yahoo provides; 25Mb. This might have been fine a few years ago, but with Google Mail offering 1Gb of storage this is stingy.
[Update: 15 June 2004. Today Yahoo updated it's free service to support 100Mb of storage and the Mail Plus account to 2Gb. Now I don't need to delete anything!]

To me the best feature was the introduction of disposable email addresses. You choose a fixed basename and then add an extension to create a valid email address. You can then use this address anywhere. If you start receiving too much spam at a particular address you delete it and create another. If you use a different address for different vendors and groups you can determine where, or who, is distributing your address.

Hesitantly I forked over the $20 a year and upgraded to the Yahoo Mail Plus account. After a month of use I understand why Yahoo Mail is popular. Being able to read and send message from any web enabled site is liberating. I worry less about backups and have decided I don't need the POP3 access. So far the spam filtering works well, seeming better than the free service.

It's working so well in fact I feel safe enough to again let people contact me. So feel free to drop me a line at dramplace-wazzup@yahoo.com.

It's good to be back!

A Day Without a Mexican - a brief movie review

This new "mockumentary" should be required viewing for all Californians. Especially those who complain how illegal aliens are taking our jobs and stealing our hard-earned tax dollars.

One morning people awaken to find their husbands, sons, parents, nannies, housekeepers and millions of other people missing. The only thing in common among these people is their latino background. The entire state is surround my a mysterious fog where anyone who enters does not return. All communications outside the state are down.

We're introduced to people in many walks of life and follow them as they deal with these disappearances. The film addresses some of the diverse attitudes and opinions toward friends, family and the often invisible immigrants people that do so many jobs in California.

Obviously done on a limited budget and it is sometime jarring and heavy handed with sudden posting of immigration related facts on screen. While dealing with a serious subject the film never takes itself too seriously. The many rough spots are forgiven due to the humor and good feelings thoughout.

It's in limited theatrical release, so you may not get a chance to see it on the big screen. If you're a member of Netflix put it in you queue. You'll never take your fresh fruits and vegetables for granted again.

RATING: *** (3 of 5 STARS)

Related Link: Official A Day Without a Mexican Web Site

Sunset

Today is my last day with Sun Microsystems.

I walked down a particular hallways hundreds of times during the last several years. Today it was different. I was walking to my manager's office to sign the final paperwork. I've left companies before, but this was different. It's felt great and it felt terrible. I'll need some time to figure out exactly how it's different.. I'll let you know.

Tomorrow Scott and I begin a desperately needed vacation that will last until the new year!

Fun with Painkillers

I wanted to post a quick message since I'm now able to sit upright long enough to type a few sentences. About six weeks ago I started having back pain. This is not unusual, it's been a problem for years and a visit or two to my chiropractor and I was good for a few more months. This time soemthing had changed. The location of the pain was the same, but it was more painful and different. Whereas before I would suffer from localized pain in the lower back (in the L5 region) this time I found I could sit comfortable, but standing or walking for any length of time became very painful.

The standard chiropractic treatments weren't helping. After years of suggestions I finally got an MRI taken of my lower back. This was my first, and hopefully last MRI scan. I can understand why claustrophobes need to be sedated before put into one of those machines. While being cranked in some of the hair on my arms was pulled off. Had I weighted ten more pound I would have needed Pam to get me to fit. I'll skip the description of the scan, but if you're a big guy like myself being held immobile and then microwaved (yes, it seems the RF excites your water molecules and you heat up) it's not an experience I'd care to repeat. However compared to the bad old days and exploritory surgery I shouldn't complain.

The tech let me look through some of the scans and even to an untrained eye it was obvious something was wrong. There was this large, almost tumor-like bulge coming from the last spinal disc (between L5 and the SI). I was impressed. If I can find a good scanner with a transparency adapter I'll get a few images online.

The next day my significant discomforted turned into extreme pain. I believe the restriction and heating of the MRI triggered these new symptoms. As always this happens on the weekend, but thankfully a few spare painkillers kept me from needing to call an ambulance.

To make a long and boring story short I had a lumbar discectomy performed on my L5 disc. I been told what people used to go though for this type of spinal surgery. Thankfully it's gotten better. It's certainly not a walk in the park (perhaps a poor choice of words), but I'm up and walking, albeit with a cane and very slowly, a week later.

I want to state to the world that IMHO nurses are probably one of the most under-appreciated people in the world. The surgeons and doctors can be great healers, but often with large helpings of arrogance, egotism, impatience, etc. thrown in. The nurses are the people that make you feel like a human being, not a complex piece of meat that's cool to perform your craft upon. For the wonderful nurses who helped me for those days I thank you.

As I heal I hope to have more say to keep this blog updated. I have some notes I'll fill in about the past few months. I missed ya! :)

The Meaning of dram

I call my sad little website dram's place and I've been asked, at least once, what does "dram" mean? What was originally a Unix login name comes from a simple combination of my name; David RAMirez. Now it's become a common nickname. You can call me Dave, but if the room fills up with more than three Daves I revert to dram. Oh, and even though it's a proper name I don't usually capitalize it because with all lowercase it's more pretentious. I also like the name to be pronounced as one syllable (rhyming with spam), some people insist on calling me "dee-ram". Since you're rarely allowed to choose your own nickname I should consider myself lucky.

Up until now I knew that "dram" had three alternate meanings:

1. The acronym for Dynamic Random Access Memory, which should be familiar to techies. For non-techies see details.
2. A bit more obscure was that the "dram" is an ancient Greek unit of measure. Originally meaning what one could hold in one's hand. Officially it's now equivalent to 1.772 grams.
3. From the late 18th century through much of the 19th a dram was a small amount of alcohol. It was referred to as taking one's "daily drams", this would avoid getting you fully drunk, but would keep you pleasantly buzzed throughout the day. I only learned of this when I was contacted by a man from Norway who wanted the domain dram.org for his drinking club. :)

Today I was just checking to see if Google had indexed this blog and I came across another meaning:

4. The Dram is the name of Armenian currency!

I've determined that this Dram weights in at approximately 77,000 drams and if some accident were to occur and I were to pass on my heirs could fly to Eastern Europe and spend about 390,000,000 Drams. If this kind of fast and easy research doesn't prove the great value and versatility of the web nothing will! ;)

Happy Birthday to Me (cough, wheeze...)

Today was the big FOUR OH... It came out of nowhere so fast! It was less traumatic than I'd long expected, It seems most of my angst had dissipated over the last year while fretting over becoming 40. Making the actual event almost a non-event. Let's here it for the advantages of pointless worrying!

During the last month I've been requiring weekly chiropractic visits and my first pair of prescription glasses should be ready in a few days. There's no denying this body and mind isn't what it used to be. Yet it's still hauling me around between my job, bookstores and restaurants. Maybe I can put off the male menopause awhile and save on the sports car payments.

It was great getting a quasi-surprise dinner party. The company of my closest friends and some wonderful food was great. I think even Bernard was impressed by the meal. My friends were kind enough to provide me with a cane and some reading glasses as a joke. Sadly the real joke was I found both items truly useful.

By the end of the evening I ended up with three birthday cakes. One formed out of wrapped candy bars formed artistically over a foam frame, a great ice cream layer cake for dinner and a fantastic Powerpuff Girls decorated white sheet cake with whipped cream frosting...yummm.. Perhaps not the best food for a diabetic, but hey, it only comes once a year.

I used Google to came up with a few tidbit that helped me get a perspective on my age:

Some Random Highlights of 1962
• John F. Kennedy was president.
• The American Red Cross had only recently entered Vietnam.
• One of the first commercial Integrated Circuit chips were produced and used in the Minuteman Missile.
  (The first true microprocessors were still ten years away)
• The most popular hairstyle was the "beehive".
• The books The Lord of the Flies, Clockwork Orange and A Wrinkle in Time (a favorite of mine in my early teens) were published.
• Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land won the Hugo Award. (another favorite)
• Lawrence of Arabia won an Oscar for Best Picture.
• I share a birthday with Janine Turner!!! (I didn't have a clue who she was either)

Some of these details are distant memories, such as JFK and the Vietnam War. Others like the books and films are alive and well. While I feel a little tattered around the edges and these day my idea of "Happy Hour" is a nap. With some luck and a better diet I might we useful for another decade or two. ;)

Thus the Season to be Thankful...

Sorry I haven't written in such a long time. A lot has happened. I'm going to shoot for a short list of major events, personal and otherwise that have impacted me recently:

1. Thanksgiving Dinner

   I hope those of you who celebrate Thanksgiving enjoyed yourselves. We certainly did. It has become something of a tradition for Scott and I to share Thanksgiving dinner with my best friend, Bernard, and his partner Reeder. Bernard is a superb cook. He manages to create a meal that is both traditional, tasty, attractive and elegant.

   When I first met Bernard nearly seven years ago I thought he was a bit of a snob when it came to eating out. He wasn't very interested in my usual favorites and quickly rejected many suggestions. After eating a few of his homecooked meals I understood he wasn't a snob, he was simply "disappointed". He could whip up a meal at home that was tastier and more attractive than a meal at all but the very finest restaurant. Of course being a typical "bear", superior culinary skills certainly encourages me to maintain a close relationship. ;) Like many, relations with my family is at times strained and having such wonderful friends is greatly appreciated.

2. We Survived another RIFF

   For those of you following the situation with Scott and my employer, Sun Microsystems, there was another "Reduction In Force" (RIFF). It's better than the term "Redeployment" that was in vogue a few years ago, but what happened to the simple word "layoff"?

   A total of 4400 people worldwide. Approximately 11% of the workforce.... that's on top of the 4000+ a year ago. Does a company that is still increasing revenue, has $6 billion dollars in cash (enough to last 12 years with the present negative cash flow), a huge installed base, facing a global industry wide downturn, not a local one, really need to cut that many people? I have no special access to the private attitudes of the company management, but the Wall Street Analysts certainly think so.

   Being an Analyst must be one hell of a great job! No matter how wrong you've been in the past. No matter how many conflict of interest issues arise around you or your employer. No matter how much money has been lost following your guidance. It does NOT matter, you're still a god! The great herd of stockholders jump and scamper at your whim. If you shout, "Thou is a worthless beast if ye does not make money today!" then the future matters not. The mortals that command the working masses must obey your commands. If not you shall shout "SELL!" and all will be lost! (Great work if you can get it!)

   The unemployment rate in Silicon Valley right now is 7.9%. No one I know that is unemployed in the tech sector has found a job yet. Most of these people have been out of work of at least a year. I can confidently say these people are not slackers! But as I've ranted in an earlier entry, since the damage is focused on just a few cities; such as San Jose and Boston, there is little notice by either the media or the government. During the dot-com boom I remember being surprised at how many "paper rich" people I met who were strident Bush supporters in the 2000 election. Candidate Bush had written off California from the very beginning, he had Texas in his pocket, so why care? Despite the fact that the vast majority of U.S. economic growth has come from the tech sector there is little concern or attention given to the situation. If anyone's has the presidential approval ratings for the Silicon Valley area I'd love to see the numbers. I wonder if the people are still as misguided now as in 2000?

3. The Republicans are now in charge of the U.S. Government!

   I haven't felt this much fear since the Reagan landslide of 1980. Hopefully some of you prayed at dinner that we survive just two more years and perhaps we can dispense with Mr. Bush and some of his minions. In a blinding flash of the obvious you're probably come to understand that I'm not a big fan of Mr. Bush or the Republican party. While talking to a conservative friend recently I realized I can come across as an uncompromising, knee-jerk liberal (you know the really bad kind, the kind with a capital "L"). I'd like to take a moment and make my stance a little more clear. While I would certainly prefer a Democratically controlled government over a purely Republican one, I'm most comfortable with a little balance. My impression that the whole point of having two houses of Congress and separate Executive and Judicial branches of government was to create a degree of moderation.

   With a right-wing controlled Congress and Executive branches, and a nearly split Supreme Court I don't feel anykind of balance is now possible. Knowing that the Federal Courts, and more terribly, Supreme Court seats, will likely be filled by right-wing extremists should gravely concern everyone that isn't a right-wing extremist. These appointments and their subsequent decisions will be something we all will have to live with for decades to come.

   Over the last ten years I've read and often disagreed with many of the Supreme Court's rulings. I personally find today's court a tad too conservative. However there were so many cases where the vote was 5-4 that I felt comforted. These close decisions meant to me that both (or more) sides of an argument were being considered. What can happen when there are few or no dissenting voices on a particular point of view? Is this really something that should worry the the average citizen; conservative, liberal or apolitical?

   <SERIOUS-LECTURE-MODE>
   In 1857 the Supreme Court, in the Dred Scott Decision, ruled 7-2 "The Constitution does not consider slaves to be U.S. citizens. Rather, they are constitutionally protected property of their masters." Further it stated that the introduction of slavery could not be prohibited by either the Federal or State government in the new territories. In other words a "Constitutional Stamp of Approval" was given to slavery within the United States. This was at a time where the country was deeply divided on the issue. The British had abolished slavery throughout their empire 24 years earlier and U.S. was one of only a handful of nations still supporting slavery.

   [Note: for those who enjoy ironic twists; the new Republican Party, founded in 1854, fought to stop the spread of slavery to the new territories. The ruling helped split the Democratic Party in 1860 and allowed the election of Abraham Lincoln. How things can change is a mere 140 years. :) ]

   The Dred Scott decision is now considered a major factor in hastening the start of the Civil War. Not too cool.......

   In 1892 a Mr. Homer Plessy, a man who was 1/8th "Black" and only 7/8th "'White", tried to ride the "White" car on the railroad. In 1896 the Supreme Court, in Plessy v. Ferguson, made their infamous "Separate but Equal" ruling in the case. In a 8-1 decision it was found acceptable to discriminate by race as long as "equal" facilities were available. Since this decision is only 106 years old I'm sure there are some who still believe this decision was a good one. However I expect the vast majority of people would agree this was not a good idea and later lead us into some of the most difficult times in our history.

   As you're probably figured out that with such important decision being made with highly unbalanced rulings; 7-2 and 8-1 in these cases, I doubt there was much "balance" in the court.
   </SERIOUS-LECTURE-MODE>

4. Scott Moved All His Stuff

   I'm not sure I'm really ready to talk about this in detail yet. To put it simply, Scott is a smart and wonderful guy. However we all have our strengths and weakness. I've learned that when it comes to managing the logistics of moving the contents of a complete apartment into multiple locations and monitoring moving men I need to take the lead from now on.

   I never would have believed walking into one's home and finding it stacked nearly to the ceiling with UNFAMILIAR STUFF could be so emotionally traumatic. Many years ago my apartment was burglarized, all my electronics were stolen and the place had been ransacked.... this was worse.

   What's done is done. Most of the material has been sorted and some of it moved to storage. A few more hours with a pair of moving men should allow us to put pretty much everything intended for storage into storage and then resume a normal live....

5. The Deathbot Has Found a Home

   Longtime readers (yes, that's a joke) may remember my past references to the Deathbot. The deadly vehicle was likely to end it's existence at the sharp end of a saw. Well, someone who very much needed a cheap car, in this case a free car, and had a friend who is a mechanic has given it a new home. With some luck and a lot of work it may have another chance at life. I guess the adage is true; "Old cars never die, they just end up in Mexico".

The Tyranny of (Cable) Ties

I can hardly believe it been a week. The apartment is working out well. Most of our "stuff" is still in piles in the living room. But the essentials have all been setup; bathrooms, bedrooms, entertainment centers and the primary computers (with their associated Net connections). The view is much better and because we're on the building's corner, we can open two windows and get better air circulation. I'm think I'm going to really like this place.

I do have a dream, maybe it's asking a lot... If we put a man on the moon over thirty years ago, we've read the human genome and Britney Spears can be made into a worldwide phenomenon... is it unreasonable to have a home or apartment without endless cords, cables and wires? I'm not just talking the Category 5 cable for your network. If you don't care about security WiFi can solve that problem. If you're also running Internet connections, LAN connections, Cable TV connections, plain old phone cords and of course a power cord for every device, with X10 devices for control, it can be overwhelming.

I've had years of experience setting up networks. I also have a fairly good understanding of basic video and audio setups. Despite this it took hours to hook up a combination Amplifier, TV, VCR, Tivo, Surround Sound speakers, subwoofer and DVD player. I gave up trying to get the optical digital audio and S-Video connections to work properly, I fell back on the simplest composite video/audio cables, as opposed to component video connections which I've yet to seen used anywhere. The digital cable set-top box is sitting unplugged, it will have to wait for a long weekend. Connecting it up to the Tivo requires pasting IR LEDs to the front of the box to fake a remote control (very elegant).

In my prior apartment I became used to using X10 controllers to dim lamps and turn fans on and off. We've just begun adding those items here, needless to say it will be a few weeks/months before everything's working. Setting up the local LAN and the Cable Modem, with appropriate firewall software with VPN support took longer than moving the furniture!

I have a question; I personally enjoy these "puzzles" and have experience with wiring and networking. Usually I possess a moderate understanding of what's going on "under the hood". Between my apartment manager and some friends I have access to every cable, jack and crimper tool that exists. With all this it's still almost more work than it's worth. What do non-geeks do?! Who do they turn to for help? Like the VCR flashing "12:00", do they just make do with the simplistic setup they can manage and live with it?

Like the PC industry on the whole there's something very wrong here. I wonder how many consumer electronic items are purchased and then end up being returned, or worse just thrown in a closet unused? What does this confusion and complexity cost, in both dollars and lost time?

Not to sound like I'm bitching, God Forbid! ;) Things could, and have been, worse. How would you like to have to turn a large crank to start your car every morning. In the early years of the automobile the "starter" hadn't been invented yet and the engines needed to be manually cranked. These engines could backfire and the crank would forcefully reverse direction and could break your arms, or on rare occasions it might even kill you (details). Somehow that's a bit worse than only being able to hear the left channel of your new CD. :)

A bit more recent, but still in the dark ages of electronics there were earlier type of network cabling. I'll date myself here, but how many people out there remember needing to use a small screw device to drill through the outer casing of a thick coaxial cable in order to add an "ethernet" tap? Recent 100/10BaseT connections using RJ45 jacks might be painful at times, but compared to using AUI connectors it's pure heaven. Oh, if anyone knows the name of the engineer who designed the AUI connector, I'll offer a reward for their identity. He or she deserves a caning at the very least!

Even in a world where a technology like Bluetooth or UWB were to allow the transfer of data to be simple and secure. What about electrical power? Some would have you believe Nicola Tesla had it figured out a long time ago. Was his invention dealt with in the same way as the auto companies bought up the Los Angeles trolley lines in the 40's and physically pulled up the rails to prevent any possible competition (details). Or were his ideas more along the lines of the water to gasoline pill or cold fusion?

Well, until something better comes along there are a lot of holes to be drilled and plastic cable ties to be used before everything is working. At least it's more fun than sorting though boxes. :)

The Move is (Mostly) Over

The massive piles of stuff have been moved to the new apartment. I first want to thank our friends Bernard and Neal. It would not have been possible without them. Scott and I owe you both.

Unfortunately it seems I had caught a cold just before the move weekend and I believe the massive amounts of dust I inhaled aggravated it. That's the main reason I've not been writing. I returned to work today for the first time this week and am only now beginning to feel human again.

The smaller bedroom turns out to be just that, smaller. With the futon couch and large TV there is very little room left. But as a friend said; if you're got a Tivo, Digital Cable, DVD/CD player, VCR, Surround Sound and a comfortable couch what else could you possibly need?! :)

So Called Service Providers

I apologize for the long delay of my on-going rant. I'm knee deep in The Move, and I'm speaking literally.

My official last day is September 9th, which means I have about 72 hours left to move approximately 90% of my stuff. My apartment manager has been amazingly helpful. He's answered my numerous phone calls and multiple requests. "When is the the RJ45 and coax going to be moved to the correct wall, when will the blinds be up, when will the counters be "set" and usable, when will pigs fly, etc., etc." His tolerance and good nature confirms that staying in this complex was a good decision.

The only problem is Scott's work week. He's been put on a new project, working with new tools, which has been a real strain on him. He's been putting in 10+ hours a day every day this week. I really hoped that he would be available to help more, but he worked hard on the move last weekend and I'm sure he's a much better sport than I would be in the same situation. He seems to manage to keep a good attitude even after a stressful week and when working even more on the weekend. He's says it's easier because his office work is very mental and the move is physical. I don't quite have the same outlook, if I feel overworked it shows in everything I do. I simply lie on the couch and remain motionless... at least until I get too hungry.

With a little luck we will have all of my seemingly endless stuff scattered about the new apartment by the end of day Monday. All the cable and phone changes are supposed to be in place by noon on Monday. I'll believe that when I see it.

Now back to a more traditional entry; bitching...

At the moment I have a DSL connection that was orginally setup years ago by Pacific Bell, which has since been acquired by SBC Communications. There were nearly no problems setting it up. The tech was helpful, and cute too. I was given a single static IP address and was getting pretty much the maximum download and upload speeds (~1.5Mbps diwn, 128Kbps up). I was so happy upgrading from a 56K dialup modem. I can't imagine going back to dial-up!

This worked very well for a long time. Once a short somehow formed in a cable, after the problem was finally diagnosed, reseating all the RJ45 cables fixed it. Upto this point I was a happy user of the SBC/Pacbell DSL service. I recommended them highly.

I was once asked why I went with DSL and not Cable. I could go into a lot of technical gibberish, but the reason is simple; I've always despised Cable companies. Since my first experience with them in the early 80's they have always been incompetent, arrogant and greedy. This is what usually happens when you have a monopoly (It's hard, but I'll refrain from getting started about the Monopolistic Horror that is Microsoft). Recently I was forced to move to digital cable and I mentioned to the techincian now poor the reception is on many of the channels. His response was "oh, everybody has this quality on the analog channels". Down the hall on the first floor a neighbor has excellent reception. Since the building owner doesn't allow private dish receivers you're just SOL. If they say a problem doesn't exists then how can they possibly fix it?

When AT&T purchased the local cable company I suspected nothing would change in term of quality, I was not disappointed. Actually I believe the reverse may have occurred. The former, non-cable, superior service offered by AT&T has suffered. Perhaps the incompetence is contagious.

I happily used the DSL service for years; then SBC/Pacbell began raising prices and degrading services. They started removing newgroups and choking down the speed of downloads from their newsgroup servers. I guess since most of their customer don't even know what a newsgroup is, they can safely piss off the minority. Sadly they are correct. I solved this problem by subscribing to have a remote, non-SBC, newgroup service. It provided me a far larger selection of groups, much longer message retention, and twice the download speed. I have to ask at this point, why is the idea of customer choice foreign to these large companies? Rather than providing less and less for the same or greater cost, why not provide different fee levels? The software to do this certainly exists, look at your cellular phone bill. If they can handle that level of complexity offering al a carte ISP service should be a breeze.

I lived with the changes. But now comes The Move. I know that the SBC DSL system no longer provides a static IP address with their basic service. I only have one because I'm grandfathered in with an old contract. Most people don't need it. It's very helpful to me. I only need to occasionally download from the "outside", but when I need it I truly need it. With the understanding that IP addresses are in short supply I'm willing to pay a bit more for one.

I called SBC and discovered I cannot purchase a single IP address, I can purchase a block of five. It's an additional $15/month. While not happy that I'd be paying $15 more each month for something I already have; you don't have a lot of choices, so I say OK. I ask, are then any other fees? "Well sir, there's a $50 move fee, and of course there is a $100 fee for the five addresses." At this point I've been on the phone for perhaps 45 minutes getting to a person who has some clue and was now being ripped off. But again, you don't have a lot of choices. "Oh, also sir, since you're upgrading from an existing basic service to a enhanced service there is also a $250 'Technician Fee'".... So at this point it's up to a $400 installation plus an additional $180 a year because I'm moving 500 feet down the hall! This was too much, I began to lose my cool. I didn't take it out on the sales person. You do reach a point where you can only be fucked so hard before you have to say enough! Like Microsoft, SBC has graduated to one of my top five "Companies that Should Burn in Hell" list. I will do almost anything to avoid giving them business and steer people clear.

I tried Earthlink, they offer exactly what I need; a single static IP address for only $15/month more than I'm paying now. Unfortunately I've done some checking and I've heard several horror stories about Earthlink's (via Covad) DSL service in my area. The consensus seems to be they have great salespeople, but lousy service. I tried AT&T Broadband and spend a long time on their site and on the phone trying to figure out exactly what they offer. The don't offer a static IP at any price, but with a free cable modem, lower monthly fees and local users have reported exceptional speeds; I was about to go with it. I was out of options.

In passing I mentioned needing VPN (Virtual Private Network) support to an educated friend. Scott and I both use it heavily to log into the office. With Sun going to a more flexible work environment it will become more important in the future. I was told that some services specifically block VPN on residential accounts. I'm attempt to determine if VPN, which usually uses TCP port 1723, is blocked by AT&T. While doing some research I came across a list of commonly used TCP ports for those geeks out there who might care.

What am I going to do? A broadband connection isn't a luxury anymore, it's a work necessity. Fortunately the apartment complex has a local network with firewalled access at a moderate speed. I'm lucky, this should provide me with a good enough connection to make due until I find a solution, or cave in to the extortion.

I'd love to think this situation will get better. When I was younger I might have thought so. "How long can you screw the consumer before something is done?" Well, the answer seems to be, "For a long long long time". Ma Bell did it. IBM did it. Microsoft excels at it, no pun intended. The cable companies don't know any other way...

A few weeks ago I read an article, I don't remember where; the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, Newsweek, maybe the back of a milk carton... It discussed the result of a study into why broadband growth has stalled. Much of the Telco mania of the 90's was based on building vast high-speed networks and fpromising fast connections into home everywhere. So far only about 15% of homes are wired for broadband, everyone else is still using dial-up connections. Why? The report came to a simple conclusion; broadband access in the US is owned almost exclusively by the Baby Bells and a handful of Cable companies. There is no significant competition.

So much for the great promises made in the late 80's that the deregulation of the telecomunications industry would advance innovation, improve competition and make for a more level playing field. Instead the grand old days of Ma Bell and IBM are back, the names have just changed. Little or no choice, predatory pricing and stifled innovation.

The politicians should be proud...

Interior Design for Compulsives

It took a long time but we managed to measure all the important rooms of our new apartment. We also measured the sizes of all of our furniture. Scott allowed himself to obsess and we got a wonderful floorplan created with some open source freeware program: qcad. It's a weird little program, but it was much easier than trying to create a layout in Photoshop! Here's a sample converted to a GIF. Obcessive Compusive Disorder can have it advantages. :)

My original concern has been confirmed. Our stuff just doesn't fit. Not that there's too much. It's just that we each own one particularly large piece of furniture. He owns a bed that might survive a missle strike and I have a wooden desk assemblage that can support enough debris for an archeological dig. Of course we're both emotionally attached to these oversized objects so the sensible solution is out of the question.

We'll work it out. My stuff will go in first, so hopefully I get first dibs on the best locations. :)

The Birth of a Brilliant Idea

Back in 2000, and again a few weeks ago, I watched a Nova program titled The Diamond Deception. It discussed the advancements in the creation of man-made diamonds. Not just the small industrial grade diamonds that have been created for decades, but those of gem quality. As of two years ago it had become possible to create synthetic diamonds that were optically indistinguishable from natural diamonds. The De Beers cartel had discovered that if you exposed synthetic diamonds to an intense UV source they would fluoresce briefly, while natural diamonds would not. It was assumed that eventually this "flaw" would be overcome.

On a side note the RIAA could take a page from De Beers' reaction to this potentially huge threat to their near monopoly on diamonds. Rather than trying to suppress, legislate, or otherwise force the world to remain the same; they are learning to adapt. They are now marketing their diamonds as even more of a "status" item. They are focusing on the "special value" of a "natural" diamond. "Yes, you can now (or very soon) buy a large inexpensive man-made diamond at a fraction of the cost, but wouldn't that be rather crass?" De Beers will certify that a diamond is "natural" by etching a unique serial number on every stone.

This technological development was interesting to me, but I'm not a jewelry fan. I don't consider them a girl's (or guy's) best friend. They are a lousy financial investment, only the jeweler and De Beers make any money. I doubt my present, or possible future beau, will ever demand a diamond "engagement" ring. :)

However on slashdot.com today I found a link to a company based in Indiana; LifeGem. Please take a moment and goto their What is LifeGem before continuing....

dum de dum dum....

Well what do you think? Morbid, brilliant, odd...?

The idea of taking the carbon from cremated remains and using this new technology to create a nearly immortal, beautiful, man-made diamond to me is simply brilliant! You don't need to keep your departed loved one in an urn on the shelf. Instead keep their distilled, crystallized remains on your person in a sparkling ring or pendant! Think about what kind of family heirloom this would make! You could actually give a part of Grandma to your daughter on her wedding day.

Do I sound a little flippant? Yes, I am having a little fun with it, but I do hope this becomes a big thing eventually. I know several people, my mother included, who are adamant about having their remains creamated (no pun intented). They consider the idea of graves, coffins and preserved bodies to be unpleasant at best. I tend to agree. Unless cryogenics becomes reasonable I would rather opt out of the coffin and worm thing.

At present the cost is considerable, US$3000-$4000 for the entire process. This seems high, until you consider the racket that the funeral business has become. When you sum all the expenses relating to a standard funeral it's doesn't seem so bad; or maybe I've just been watching too many episodes of Six Feet Under.

Perhaps some would consider the whole idea vulgar or morbid, but think about a possible situation. You're in a social gathering and wearing a tasteful diamond ring (gender appropriate). Small talk ensues and you or someone mentions your jewelry. You could say something as simple as; "Yes, this ring is very special to me, it helps me to remember my parents...". You could leave it at that or go a step farther and explain the details. Your choice.

There is also another reason I hope this catches on. As a rule Americans avoid the thinking about death at almost any cost; all that matters is youth and the image of good health. As the aging baby boomers are beginning to realize, everything and everyone eventually dies. Perhaps having a daily, yet positive, reminder of this universal truth might help us appreciate the now.

Then again, probably not...

I Just thought it was kinda cool. :)

[Update 26 Aug 2002: More information has become available on the process. There is a concern about getting enough carbon from the remains. But if LifeGem arranges the cremation they capture much of the carbon that is usually lost as carbon dioxide. They are even working on an isotope marking system to ensure you are getting the correct gem. An average .25 carat costs US$4000, but they can create a full one carat gem for US$22,000. And yes, you can have your beloved pets immortalized too. (more details).]

The Little TV Things

Warning: This rambling is more random than usual...

In my first major relationship my partner and I started watching a rerun of the British series Upstairs, Downstairs. Originally aired from 1971 through 1975. Each Saturday there was a another episode. There was a total of 68 episodes! (Let's to the math; 52 weeks in a year, so that's one year and four months to complete the series). I certainly don't remember the details of the programs, but I do remember how it was something Josh and I could look forward each weekend to no matter what was going on in our lives.

Today Scott and I are fans of the television program Stargate SG-1. It's one of those small events that we look forward to each week. For good or ill the advent of Tivo has made the timetable for these events more flexible. Someday there will be a long Tivo rant, but the line "...grant me courage to change the things I can..." applies to the subject and I'm not just strong enough yet.

Over the years Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager were also weekly staples. As is Enterprise now. It was a great excuse to get on the couch together and forget whatever Reality had served us up that day. (I am not referring to the obscenity known as Reality TV)

I sometime wonder what it was like before the Boob Tube? I'd assume there was less leisure time and people actually had to talk to each other. The large number of card and older board games suggests there was once greater interest. Not being in a large family I can't imagine what's it's like today. Between TV, video games, telephone and on-line chats, extracurricular school activities and homework I can't see there being too much interaction between family members; other than being a chauffeur. Anyone out there who does have a family with one or more parents and a number of children please let me know what it's really like out there. It seems kinda scary....

Where was I..it gets hard to keep track.... oh, Stargate SG-1. They are in their 5th season. It's difficult to determine exactly where we are because the program started on Showtime but moved to the SciFi Channel. The SciFi Channel handles it's schedule differently and so it considers the most resent episode to be the season finale; except there are four more episodes in the can and ready. These will not be shown until January, I think, that don't make it clear. Originally this was intended to be the last season. A final epsiode was written that would wrap things up somewhat. Immediately production on a full length feature film would begin to end the story arc. Now rumor has it the entire thing is up in the air again; there may be another television season, which of course would put off the movie.... (now this proves I need to get a real hobby).

Another rumor is the reason for the delay is the star of Stargate SG-1, Richard Dean Anderson which most people know as MacGyver, wishes to spend more time with his family in LA. I find this amusing because I've been told Mr. Anderson is Canadian and the series is filmed in Canada. His family lives in LA. I've been to LA, I can't imagine prefering it to places like Toronto, Vancouver or even Quebec City. Some say if you offer a big enough paycheck they will change their mind. That may be true, but I've spent my computer related career either changing companies or job functions every three years or less. In the case of a successful series, playing the same role five years must be difficult or maybe even grueling.

Two actors that come to mind are Michael Dorn and Colm Meany, both were involved with Star Trek: The Next Generation. They both moved onto the spinoff series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. There are gaps in their production schedules, but they both worked something like a total of 12+ years in these roles! Mr. Dorn has also appeared in some of the feature films. I assume there is a certain security in having the work, but constantly having people assume you love prune juice must be annoying at best (if you don't understand this reference it's not important).

It is a rare TV program; such as in Stargate SG-1, that has deep characters. Mr. Anderson's creation of Col. Jack O'Neil is original and inspired. The writing usually avoids cliches. It has fun with it's own concepts and often suprises you with original twists; a rarity on TV. I hope that we have another year where Scott and I can share a bowl of frozen yogurt while being taken to a different world. [If not we've never seen any of the 2nd season, the DVD version should arrive within a week!]

Home Sweet Home

It's official, Scott and I are getting a two bedroom apartment in the same complex, and even the same floor, as I live in presently. Since he spends nearly all his time here his apartment is just an extremely expensive storage area. I feel a bit lucky. My apartment complex has just under 100 units, but most are either studios or one bedrooms. The two bedroom apartments are few and rarely open up.

Considering we've been together for more than 4-1/2 years this change has taken awhile. Scott was hesitant to move in together for the first 2-1/2 years, and I agree that waiting at least a year is a good idea. After 2-1/2 year I was so tired of waiting for him I lost my motivation. Bad timing seems to be a common theme for us. I'm in too much of a hurry most of the time, spending 13 years on the East Coast in Boston reinforced my behavior. Scott's an Alabama boy, he does everything kinda slow. It makes for some interesting conflicts.

We saw the apartment today and need to make it work. Within the next few days I will be taking measurements of an identical, but already vacated, apartment and start sketching floorplans. I realized that there's no high-tech solution here. Just a measuring tape, pencil, graph paper and paper cutouts to represent our stuff (In George Carlin's defination of the word).

It's going to be a challenge making everything fit. Remember that in California there are no "problems", just "challenges". The living room is too large for the minimal furniture we own, the small bedroom is too small for a standard office setup, and the master bedroom is too large to be just a bedroom. Considering our habits and possessions I suspect we will have a living room with a lots of book shelves, IKEA here we come, and the file and print server machines. Maybe a couch and lamp too, no chairs yet. The office will have our primary desktop computers, technical books, our precious games and a small futon sofa/bed. The small bedroom will have a non-futon bed and dual Tivo DVRs. This will be for sleeping at night and providing a "Panic Room" for the those occasional homicidal moments. In the end I believe we're going to have something funky, maybe even cool. However I'll be thrilled if we can just keep it debris free. I promise there won't be any pictures. :)

While on the subject of pictures. Our apartment manager agreed to our conditions, regarding the old car. He was thrilled by the idea making a video recording of the DeathBot's evisceration... it was meant as a joke!... If we do manage to cut it up without severing any of our limbs I'll post the video. Yeah, you'd prefer a video of us severing our limbs, with screams, blood, EMTs, etc. [You're just another typical sick and twisted web-surfing pervert! :)]

L8R!

In Search of... the Perfect Car (The Conclusion)
and Miscellaneous Rants

It's hard to believe, but it's finally over. Sitting downstairs is a 2002 Silver Acura RSX. The DeathBot has been officially declared worthless and may end up spending the rest of it's existance as a off-road cart to move materials around my apartment complex. I'm told a Saws-all will be used to remove the body. The one condition on donating this car was we get to witness it's evisceration. There's also a chance this event might get videotaped, so stay tuned for a future QuickTime movie! :)

Now perhaps I'll be able to move onto subjects a bit less materialistic; book reviews, current events, the cult of corporate greed, computer hardware/software and of course my upcoming move.

If everything works out I'll will be moving out of my one bedroom apartment into a two bedroom in the same building, on the same floor. This will allow Scott to move everything into either the apartment, or an off-site storage locker, . He can finally give up his incredibly expensive excuse for a storage area (aka his apartment) in Mountain View.

The car shopping has been stressful for Scott, but I got the best smile out of him recently by noting that the decrease in his rent will cover about 75% of his new car payment. I neglected to mention that we'll need to rent a march larger storage area at a higher price, but I'll let him enjoy his good feelings as long as possible. (hmmm, somehow we're back on materialistic matters)

As of August 2002 I'd like to give a bit of advice to anyone considering moving to the San Francisco Bay/Silicon Valley area. Housing prices, this includes both home purchases and apartment rentals, are outrageous by most standards. But outside of San Francisco itself prices have begun to soften. Where as three years ago there were six month waiting lists and "special payments" and "kickbacks" were becoming all to common; it's different now. The area is reverting to a somewhat normal economy. Most large apartment complexes have at least one vacancy. You can actually find "For Rent" signs hanging out from time to time. Before a vacancy was never open long enough for this to happen. You'd get a place because you knew someone who knew someone that had a sister moving out of their apartment....

For those of us still employed this is great. My new two bedroom apartment, while still very expensive compared to national averages, feels much more fair. We have some relatively new apartment managers who take their jobs seriously, don't accept "special payments", and strive to keep the place well maintained and secure. Instead of hearing old WWII stories from the previous manager, I discussed the details of the business level DSL and it's associated firewall issues tha was being installed in the complex. The change came as a shock. Before being mildly abused and ignored, while paying well for the privilege, was standard; it reminded me a lot of college.

There have been other changes. Like any heavily populated area, traffic can be heavy and slow. Two years ago I was about to ask to I work from home at least three days a week just because of the commute was taking so long, and I only live 20 miles from my office! Friday evenings were horrible. Leaving work between 5pm and 7pm was just a waste of time and gas.

Now the commute is more reasonable, even more so if your employer is flexible about starting times. Fortunately companies like mine, Sun Microsystems, are progressive and are pushing hard toward flex-offices and work-at-home arrangements. I've heard rumors that by converting to flexible offices and allowing people to "float" between different campuses and home they may save upto $100 million a year in building maintanence/rent/etc. Considering how tight IT spending has become, and it's impact on all tech company sales, that could make a real difference to the bottom line. Being a stockholder, I almost wrote shockholder, in the company, this matters to me. ;)

For those without jobs it's a different matter. It's tough. A major reason for the decreased traffic and relaxed housing is unemployment. People who were until very recently considered all but immune to unemployment are now spending many months looking in vain for work. Many companies are afraid to invest in staff when the future is uncertain. While at the Open Source Conventions (see earlier blog entry) at one well attended Keynote the speaker asked; "How many people in the room are either unemployed or underemployed?" The number of hands raised came as a shock, a rough guess would be 20%. Considering this conference is somewhat expensive and most of they people were paying for it out of pocket, this high a percentage makes it even more frightening. How many usual attendees couldn't afford to come?

An ex-partner of mine made a interesting observation. He worked at a high-paying job in a rather specialized field; Knowledge Management. When the downturn hit his speciality took it especially hard. Suddenly if you weren't a sales person, or an engineer working on a soon to be announced product, your job security was at risk. He and many other high-tech workers are now out of work. I suspect if the same percentage of blue-collar factory workers had been hit this hard there would be hell to pay. There would be human interest stories on the TV news and printed in newpapers. The political fallout would probably be significant. You might even see demonstrations. I vaguely remember the 70's and people's reaction to long-term blue-collar unemployment.

Now, there's almost nothing. Since these unemployed workers were once highly paid, and considered professionals, they somehow don't matter. Even though they are exhausting their saving, especially with the stock market melt-down their nest-eggs have been trashed. Credit card debt and defaults are increasing fast. I've noted that some Europeans see the American tendancy to have multiple credit cards to be a form of unemployment insurance. If so that would explain some of the spending. There has been little coverage on the national news that I watch and read (CNN, Wall Street Journal and Salon.com). There has been some coverage in the San Jose Mercury News, but considering they serve the hardest hit area I would hope so.

The employment rate nationally, on average, is still reasonable. Unlike past recessions this has struck different regions. Instead of Detroit, it's San Jose and Boston. I've talked with people outside Northern California and they seem to think that everyone working in the Valley were all temporary dot-com millionaires and it's somehow fitting that they are getting their "just desserts". From my experience the vast majority benefited only modestly, if at all, from stock-options. I've never seen a dime of profit from stock options myself. Most companies I've worked for has offered them, but they were of no value by the time I was vested. Salaries are high, but the cost of living, especially housing, are correspondingly high.

What's my point? (Note: In these rants I reserve the right to have no point whatsoever) In this case there has been a lot of focus on how everyone is losing massive amount of money in the stock market (and through their 401K plan losses their retirement plans may be in danger). But what about the unemployed? Not the unfortunates who are always the first to lose their jobs in a downturn, their plight is well known and repeatedly documented, but what of the technology workers?

The technology companies provided and are providing a massive service to the US and the global economy. The majority of productivity improvement can be traced back to technological improvements, and productivity is considered one of the best measures of economic health. In my not so humble opinion the dot-com bust and telco collapse were failures of Wall Street, not the "technologists". The institutions of Wall Street once housed educated people of integrity whom could distance themselves from the "manias" and make reasonable accessments of business risk. As can now be seen with Enron, Arthur Anderson, Worldcom, etc. This intregrity and professionalism have in too many cases been replaced by greed and outright fraud.

So while we're cheering the deserved punishments of some of the worst corporate offenders, and we open our 401K statement in fear, remember the real people who are being most hurt by this recession in the here and now.

In Search of... the Perfect Car (continued)

Well, it looks like a decision has finally been made. After I was forced to drive the Honda Insight again and to ride around in a new Acura RSX, Scott as 'almost' made a final decision; the Acura RSX.

The two cars are entirely different, which made the decision difficult. One of the surprises came while looking into the details of the Insight's warranty. We were originally told that the Insight came with a 7 year, 100,000 mile warranty that covered the battery. The battery is the newest technology and most expensive component on the vehicle. It turns out that the 7 year 100,000 mile warranty is an option and cost an additional $1495.

My final test drive of the Insight confirmed most of what I said before; great handling, fantastic mileage and surprisingly good performance. Countered by a very noisy ride, very limited cargo space and an apparent lack support from Honda (considering it's a relatively new technology). Having been an early adopter of other technologies I've been on both sides (a few examples; the original Macintosh 128K was great. The original Newton was a total waste of time and money).

This and the extremely patient and low-pressure salesman at the Acura dealership made the decision.

So all that's left is the signing of papers and the pickup. I looking forward to letting Scott drive more often and not worrying that he'll meet a fiery end in some traffic accident because of his present deathtrap.

God, I just realized Scott and I will have semi-matching cars; same color, brand and almost identical styling. I feel awkward when we wear the same color shirts! :)

The BOSF (Bears of San Francisco) are having a picnic on Angel Island today. I went to this years ago and had a blast. I'd like to go, but getting this car business out of the way is more important. It's always great to meet new people. But I've been feeling guilty that we're neglecting the great friends we have now...

In Search of... the Perfect Car (continued) We've managed to test drive the cars and have excluded these from the running:

• VW Jetta
  Scott doesn't care for the styling or the price, while reasonable, it seems a bit too high for what you get.
• VW Passat
  I found the styling a bit too "middle-age" sedan and a bit too large for Scott (It's just about right for me). Once you've added all the extras the price was significant
• Toyota Celica
  I don't know where to begin with the problems with this thing. Poor styling, cramped and uncomfortable. Scott's 6' 1" and his head still hit the moonroof. Good car for shorter people wanting poor mileage and poor performance. Consider an RSX instead.
• Toyota Prius
  Overall we were impressed. Far better acceleration and comfort than we expected from such a light and small car. Unfortunately, while the mileage is very good, it wasn't great. If you're going to risk buying a new technology it really needs to be something special. The NiMH batteries are covered for upto 100,000 miles, but if you need to replace them after that the price is something in the neighborhood of $6000. The hope is the batteries would be much cheaper in a few years...with that kind of money I'd rather depend on hope in the stock market or Vegas.
• Honda Civic
  This took the longest to consider. There was an odd looking hatchback model, something like a micro-van. While odd, I could see myself driving it. Very practical, fair mileage, unique styling; and only available with a manual transmission! What is Toyota thinking?!? The standard Civics were practical and struck you as good cars. But nothing made them stand out; performance, price, styling, nothing. The hybrid model caught our interest, but by just putting a Civic body on a hybrid engine you lose the aerodynamics and light weight of the Insight or Prius, thus the mileage gain is not worth the risk.

That leaves us with:

• Toyota Corolla
  The ultimate in practicality and reliability for your dollar. It's a great choice if your budget is tight and you want basic transportation. Sadly I feel it has no style or soul whatsoever. I like a car to be a bit more than just basic transport, especially if you're going to be spending so much time in it. However Scott is very much into the purely practical.
• Acura RSX
  The RSX is the successor to the Integra, which I love. I was surprised when Scott admitted how much he enjoys driving my car. The reliability is great and the hatchback makes it somewhat practical (I've commented on my feelings toward my Integra earlier). If we go with this we know exactly what to expect.
• Honda Insight
  This car is the greatest surprise of them all. It's has some of the same problems as the Prius, being a hybrid. The concern about the technology and the potential "balloon payment" if a new battery is needed after the warranty expires. It's a true two seater, there's not even the package shelf that an RSX claims is a backseat. The "cargo" area is very small, but it could handle some shopping. Oh, and the front stereo speakers are a joke, and there are no rear speakers. They would have to be replaced immediately. Due to the sleek design the view out the rear isn't as good as it should be. If you're carrying anything in the back the view would be even worse. The suspension is a bit rough, but overall the car was quiet.

  The acceleration from a standing start was amazing! Between the gas and electric engines both contributing power and the lightweight body and aerodynamic design the car flew onto the highway. The concerns I've heard that electric cars can't merge safely onto highway traffic and cannot reach a reasonable top speed is solved by this hybrid design. We were able to reach a sustained 89 mph on the highway. Later I got out of the car, thus removing about 300lbs, and Scott drove it alone. He was able to push it to 95 mph. It has the tightest turning radius of any car I've driven. Only a motorcycle or a golf cart could do better. Being so small it would make parking in SF a lot easier. For every parking spot I've found in SF, while in my Integra, I've passed two that would have been fine for the Insight. The automatic climate control was the best I've seen in other than a luxury car. And of course, the mileage is the best on the road.

That's it for now. It's obvious from my ravings what car I would get. I'm not the buyer here. Scott tells me he'll make a decision by this weekend!

In Search of... the Perfect Car

I think the end is finally near. My SO is finally getting close to choosing what machine will be carting his body around for the next few years.

Getting to this point has been painful. His present automobile (I use the term loosely) is an early 90's Toyota Corolla. It's first 100,000 miles were probably pretty good, the second 100,000 haven't been as kind. It gets washed when in rains, so here in Northern California it cleanliness varies depending on the season. It's oil gets changed every season or so. The backseats are a storage area for empty Gatoraid bottles and unread junk mail. Note: It's stunning how many empty bottles can fit into the back seat of such a small car before they start spilling onto the driver! It's former good gas mileage is much reduced since one of it's four cylinders doesn't work anymore. Seeing the left mirror getting ripped off was kinda cool, but driving without it isn't.

Due to it's general state and the passenger headrest that jammed info a position guarenteed to induce whiplash, I tend to avoid it riding or driving it. I semi-affectionly refer to it as the DeathBot. The other day I saw someone park next to it, get out of their car, look inside for awhile and then shake their head in disbelief. None of this seems to bother Scott. :( "A car is a machine that gets you from point A to point B...that's it" is his attitude. When I was in my early 30's I would have agreed completely. Since then my attitude has changed. I purchased a new car five years ago. I wanted something reliable, not too expensive, but with a least a little sense of style. After a lot of research and test driving I settled on an Acura Integra. Someone once called it "the Buick of sports cars". It sorta passes for a sports car, but it's really just a suped up Civic. I'll also admit this in public, I know it's wrong, but I got an automatic transmission, rather than a traditional manual, in a sporty car. I was visiting San Francisco alot back then and trying to park on those hills with a stick and only two feet was more than I could handle. So now I can drive around will a little bit of horsepower, get some feel of the road, yet there's a hatchback and folding back seats for those large Costco runs.

The status of the DeathBox finally changed when a tire blew out. We put on the spare, but it was obvious all four tires needed to be replaced immediately. Oh and just to add to the fun the spare shredded a couple of days later. With the cost of four new tires probably being more than twice the value of the car itself Scott finally came around and decided it was time. After some research and word of mouth the contestants are:

• VW Jetta
• VW Passat
• Toyota Corolla
• Toyota Celica
• Toyota Prius
• Acura RSX
• Honda Civic
• Honda Insight
• Porsche Boxster S (just kidding)

The test drives have begun and when/if we come across something special I'll update the list.

P.S. Our apartment manager had a suggestion for the DeathBot. Leave all the bottles and paper in the backseat, add some potting soil and a few plants. Leave it in an outside parking spot, water well and we'll have a wonderfully unique terrarium! :)

The Joy of Gaming
Getting older just kinda sucks. I'm pushing 40. Yes I know it's not old, but it sure as hell isn't young either.

Why am I whining about this at 2am on a Sunday morning? This is gonna sound pathetic; but getting your ass kicked in an on-line computer game by preteens over and over and over again just brings it all home. Experience, wisdom, intelligence, education, etc. are meaningless in this arena. Pure mental speed and 'twitch' are all that matters.

If you have an addictive personality and haven't been exposed to Computer Games(tm). I not referring to Solitaire or those god awful Deer Hunter titles, but to RTS (Real Time Strategy) or Simulation games. Consider yourself blessed and stop reading right now! Go do something productive and have a great life.

If you think you're firmly in control of your behavior and believe computer games are harmless fun, then just continue... the first hit is always free.

The vast majority of computer games are trash. I speak with confidence because I have collected several shelves of over-priced crap. Even the 'good' ones often suffer from at least a few serious problems. It seems most computer game company work on a quantitative rather than a qualitative system. Just get X number of products out the door each fiscal quarter. There will always be enough suckers who will buy it if your packaging is nice and shiny. How Paramount has allowed one lousy game after another to be released under the Star Trek franchise is a particularly disgraceful example. (I'll save that for another 2am rant).

There is at least one exception to this rule. I've been a big fan of Blizzard Entertainment games for quite a few years. Blizzard has a well deserved rep for producing extremely well executed games. Almost free of bugs, finely balanced and a lot of fun. They also have a rep for being at least several years late from their first promised release date. Normally this would put anyone off a software companies products, but you always forgive them because they do such a great job. The company has learned it's lesson and no longer provides projected release dates until they are well into testing. The stock line is "It will be Done when it's Done".

My first introduction was Diablo in 1996, one of the first great adventure and trade items games. Then came StarCraft in 1998. The gameplay of StarCraft of derived from an earlier Blizzard game, WarCraft and WarCraft II. While I never played WarCraft, I was told StarCraft was a vastly improved version; but instead of Humans and Orcs, you play Terrans and two different aliens races. The StarCraft gameplay was tougher than Diablo, you really needed to think. True strategy was involved, you could create your own game maps and there was even a scripting language that let you setup interactive scenarios and complete mission objectives. You could even add your own sounds and voice. Many web sites came and went detailing hints, battle tactics, game maps, etc..

I became comely engrossed in this game, I lost count of the number of near all-nighers spent battling my enemies. Scott and I played competitively until his effortless victories became a bit of a strain on the relationship. We developed games to play cooperatively again the computer and later on-line. These on-line games were my first encounter with these preteen wargame machines. I'd say this went on for most of a year. Our involvement lessened, but didn't stop.

Thinking back I was relieved to know it couldn't get much more intense or obsessive... Along came Diablo II in 2000. Probably the most addictive activity of my life. Due to delays in finishing the game the graphics were a bit substandard for the time. Everything else was nearly perfect! Much of the game was hack and slash.. This took little thought, you were rewarded by "magic items" and "gold" that was dropped when you killed a creature or while exploring. Most of the items were useless, but every now then there would be a jewel of an item (oh, and there were also true gems and magic jewels but let's skip that level of detail). Due to the architecture of the game there were waypoints long your path that once reached would make starting your next game a bit easier. Needless to say there was always another waypoint and a strong desire in your head to play just a little longer. Each "Act" in the game has a Town where you could sell your found items for gold, buy new items with the gold, and even gamble at lot of gold on the remote chance of getting something really cool. The really fantastic part of this was if you played on-line you could go adventuring and trade with real people on the other end! You might say this was the PERFECT game for a blood-thirsty shopaholic.

After several weeks of playing I was frustrated by how difficult it was to find the really cool magic items for my characters. You need to play an ungodly number of hours before you would be rewarded with something really worthwhile. Trading on-line wasn't much better because the "merchants" might have what you want, but they wanted something equally rare in return. (A good way teach Capitalism to the young) Finally I heard there was a solution to my problem; Diablo II items were being sold on eBay! For only a few dollars I could buy items that might take me weeks, if ever, to find on my own!

I setup a PayPal account for this purpose, just $50. A bit more than I paid for the game itself, but reasonable. $2 for some cool Battle Boots or Wand. As my characters advanced, with the help of these items they were able to use even more advanced magic. So now for only $15 I could get a really kick-ass Shield. You see where this was going. Starting at $50, I soon needed another $100, then a couple of hundred more.... My explanation is simple: here were all these young kids (many South Korean) spending countless hours playing on-line and trading with other players to get these valuable items. I had a job and a life (sorta) and as such I couldn't devote the necessary hours to compete, not exactly fair, right? Not only was I balancing the injustice I was also doing these kids a favor by giving them a bit of my hard earned cash for all their hard work!

Then I began getting friends involved and exchanged screenshots of the cool magic items we were finding and buying. A married couple we are friends with had upgraded to DSL and so we interconnected our networks and played together using the net connection and two speaker phones..... We had a lot of fun...It eventually got pretty scary. The four of us performed a mutual Intervention and slowed down our usage for awhile. To be fair it's not all bad, the New York Times ran a great article about this Diablo phenomenon (I believe free registration is required to access the NYT on-line).

We didn't touch our on-line Blizzard accounts for months, our character were eventually deleted automatically. Scott and I played a few other game, some were even Diable II clones. Some of them were even fun and of high quality. But none of them gave quite the same "high". Our friends went back to a more normal life setting up their new home and spending a little time with model trains.

I'd like to tell you it was over...

On July 3rd, 2002 Blizzard's new game, WarCraft III, was finally released. A vastly improved version of StarCraft, but instead of Terran and two alien races, you have Humans, Orcs, the Undead and Night Elves. Each "race" unique in their abilities. Instead of simple 2D graphics you have true 3D! You can create your own 3D maps and scripting language is far more powerful than in StarCraft! The on-line systems has been vastly improved and you can more easily join games with other players! This is really cool! I can't wait to play it awhile and those preteens on-line will learn who's boss! (sigh...)

Lazy Bear, Open Source, Dore Alley and Margaritas

It's the first weekend after the marathon sessions of Lazy Bear, the Open Source Conference and finally the Dore Alley Fair....

Lazy Bear was great, met some fun people and enjoyed the hot tubs.

The O'Reilly Open Source Conference, in San Diego, was also very positive. Unfortunately more exhausting that expected. The Keynotes started at 8:45am and the official sessions ended around 5:30pm. There were many scheduled "unofficial" meetings than could run as late as 10pm. This can make for a long week.

Scott and I were planning to say in San Diego for the weekend. It was Gay Pride weekend there and we'd met many San Diegians (sp?) while at Lazy Bear. We were invited to my first overtly Bear-friendly Diner; Brians' American Eatery. If you enjoy quality diner cuisine (no, that's not an oxymoron), friendly service and fair prices I highly recommend it. (Please note the apostrophe in Brians' is correct. Ask for a Brian, he'll explain).

Though by friday the conference was taking it's toll. Scott and I woke up Friday, still tired, and decided in unison; "Let's go Home!". We cancelled everything and flew back Friday night.

Saturday was wonderful, a day of rest, naps and homemade margaritas. Scott's getting very good at making these, yet another reason to keep him. :)

We were rested enough my Sunday to take on the Dore Alley Fair (officially know as the Up Your Alley Fair). The weather was perfect; sunny, but cool and breezy. With luck some of the photos I took should be up on the web within a week. [It took much more than a week, but here are some of the photos]

Five day back at work that just flew by. Now it's as wonderful a Saturday morning as you can enjoy, at least when you have a mild hangover.

Wow, my first test blog entry!!! :/