Bolie Williams IV

Is this thing on?

Posted by bolie on Monday, July 2, 2001 at 0:15:58

I'm in the process of analyzing my logs with Analog, a popular log analysis program. I'm still trying to get it configured to produce the output I want, but according to what I've seen so far, hardly anyone reads this. So, if you do, you must part of a very elite group. Heh.

Of course, I use the Mac version of Analog, but there are versions for Windows and Linux.

You can take your pollution...

Posted by bolie on Wednesday, Jun 27, 2001 0:18

Well right now the EPA is considering what to make Houston do to reduce its pollution. I'm not up on the current plan, but all kinds of measures have been considered from restricting construction and lawn mowing to adding bike lanes. Actually, they've already added bike lanes, but more on that below. What no one seems to consider is that Houston has 1/8th of the nation's petroleum refining capacity and the Port of Houston is #1 in foreign cargo tonnage and #2 in total cargo tonnage in the United States and #8 in the world. So we are being polluted by refineries making plastic and chemicals for 1/8th of the country, most of which is not in Houston. So why should I have to restrict my driving or my lawn mowing so that some yahoo in Colorado can breathe the fresh mountain air after having driven his SUV up the mountain. An SUV that uses gas refined in Houston and made of plastics made in Houston. And having left all of its pollution in my air. What we really need to do is make the refineries clean up their act and pass the costs on to their customers. This would fairly distribute the cost rather than dumping it all on me and other Houstonians.

Oh, and about the bike lanes... some idiot thought that we could reduce pollution by painting bike lanes and narrowing the driving lanes. I'm not sure what this person was smoking, but Houston is one of the most spread out cities in the world. It's also very hot and very humid most of the year. When it's not hot and humid, it's raining. We recently had tropical storm Allison come through as you may have seen on the news. So no one is going to commute to work on a bicycle. Aside from the fact that most people live miles from their work, they'd have to take a shower when they got in in the morning. From personal experience, I've never seen anyone commuting on the bike lanes. I've seen a few people out on the weekends, but I've seen more people pushing strollers than riding bikes.

This same kind of thinking also got us a ban on new road construction funding until pollution goes down. So all the cars that are out during rush hour will continue to sit in traffic and pollute as they idle rather than speeding to work on new roads. What Houston needs is intelligent road construction and more buses. The buses should run off natural gas, fuel cells, or batteries.

And that brings my energy and pollution rant to nuclear power. As long as we're building coal and gas power plants, I'll know that we're not serious about the environment. Continuing to build huge sources of products of combustion is just stupid if we're really having some kind of environmental crisis. There's no technical reason we can't build clean, efficient, and safe nuclear power plants. People get all fired up over the nuclear fuel that must be stored in a cave but are quite happy to breath the tons and tons of crap that combustion produces. I guess they can't see the smoke so they don't believe it really exists.

Enough foaming at the mouth for now...

No-Privacy Policy

Posted by bolie on Wednesday, Jun 27, 2001 0:07

I've recently received a flood of "privacy" policies from various companies I do business with. They all start out by telling me how concerned they are with my privacy. They then go on to explain that they will only share information as required or allowed by law. That "allowed by law" bit is the part that allows them to sell my personal information to anyone. So I guess their policy on privacy is that I don't have any.

The Unexpected Bush

Posted by bolie on Wednesday, Jun 27, 2001 0:03

If this is indicative of George Bush's policies, then go, George, go. I can't believe that the government is helping to build cruise ships of all things. And then giving them a monopoly on cruises in the Hawaiian Islands. How stupid.

Reading on, I see that American shipyards suck and subsidizing the risk and cost of using them means that they will continue to suck. Do these people not get that government subsidies do not help build strong domestic industries? This kind of protectionism has never worked before, why would it work, now? I've actually been to a Korean shipyard to oversee the installation of some equipment on a drilling rig. They are working very hard to make their shipyard the best. Meanwhile, American shipyard owners are in Washington, lobbying for more subsidies. Who is going to build better ships?

Knife Control

Posted by bolie on Saturday, June 9, 2001 at 13:02

This incident is a terrible, terrible tragedy. A man stabbed and slashed first and second graders, killing eight and wounding fifteen before being wrestled to the ground. Violence is rising in Japan and more and more is committed with knives. I wonder if peole in Japan will call for strict knife control. The man used a six inch kitchen knife. Should people be restricted to only five inch kitchen knives with a 5 day waiting period? Since you obviously can't prevent people from getting weapons and even knives can be used to kill many people, gun control is not going to be the answer to the problem of violent crime. The source needs to be found and addressed.

For comparison, two boys each armed with multiple firearms and explosives, killed 14 and wounded 23.

I would also like to suggest checking out the FBI, especially this report on school shootings which points out that crimes in schools have decreased since 1993 and advocates a more sophisticated response to threats than just expelling anyone who verbalizes a threat or wears a black trenchcoat.

Check out the Uniform Crime Reports for more statistics. From 1995 to 1999, 67% of homicides were committed with a firearm. Of those, 80% were committed with a handgun, 5.2% with a rifle, 6.3% with a shotgun, .36% with another kind of gun, with almost 8% unstated. Of course, over that period, the total number of homicides and the number committed with a firearm have decreased by about 40%.

Email Hoaxes

Posted by bolie on Monday, June 4, 2001 at 20:26

If you receive a virus warning by email, please check the following websites before sending it to everyone in your address book. I've received several of these warnings recently, all hoaxes. The email itself is a virus and it spreads by convincing people to send it on. Most virus warnings and pleas for signatures or post cards or whatever are hoaxes. Again, the following sites have a lot of information on these:

• CIAC Hoaxbusters
• CIAC links to other Hoax busters
• Rob Rosenberger's VMyths
• CERT Security Institute at Carnegie Mellon
• Symantec's Hoax Page
• AFU - Urban Legends - includes email hoaxes and other urban legends

Again, please check sources before sending these messages out. They use a tremendous amount of bandwidth. And remember, no one traces email and donates money for each forwarding. No video will play if you forward an email so many times.

New Saturn

Posted by bolie on Monday, May 28, 2001 at 22:49

We just bought a new Saturn (my wife's third). We love buying from Saturn because there is so little pressure. The salesmen were nice and friendly and helpful. They loaned us a car so we could decide which we preferred and one of the women who worked there even took our daughter and changed her diaper while we were signing papers. The dealership we went to is Saturn of Houston, Southwest Freeway, just inside the Beltway. We bought our last Saturn at the I-10 West Saturn and had a similar experience. Now if they only made a full-sized, rear-wheel drive car with a V-8.

So Long and Thanks for All the Fish

Posted by bolie on Tuesday, May 15, 2001 at 0:02

As you may already know, Douglas Adams, creator of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe series, among other things, died on May 11th. It's a tragic loss, made worse by the fact that he was only 49 and in good health.

Neighborhood Nazis

Posted by bolie on Thursday, May 3, 2001 at 21:49

While I understand the need for community associations to have some way to force residents to pay, they should not be able to seize a home without the knowledge of the owner. this Chronicle story is an example of a community association run amok. These people callously took a woman's (82 year old widow) home (completely paid for) to cover around $800 in missed dues. She had even deposited a check, but they apparently felt that once they'd started the process of taking her home, they were going to follow through. They sent her mail addressed to her dead husband and sent someone around to knock on her door at night. She assumed the mail to her dead husband was junk mail and never answered the door at night (being a widow living alone). So the courts gave them the house and they sold it for $5,000. Fortunately, her neighbors are behind her and they are fighting to get her house back. I think she should be able to make a case of no due process, myself.

This is not the first case like this that I've seen lately. In another, a man's home was taken while he was in the hospital. His neighbor knew where he was, but the community association didn't feel the need to actually see what had happened. They just took his home. In Texas, you can't have your home seized to pay debts but apparently you can have it taken by a bunch of busy bodies who are too lazy to actually see why you haven't paid. And it can be done without you ever going to court or having a chance to respond to those who are taking your home. I hope this never happens to me. I'm sure the courts would frown on my defending my landÉ

Kyoto Protocols

Posted by bolie on Tuesday, May 1, 2001 at 23:15

I just read the Kyoto protocols and some of the commentary, both good and bad, and am now glad that the United States hasnÕt ratified it. IÕm all for reducing pollution and protecting the environment, but setting numeric goals on CO2 production is not very practical and ignores many other problems. Leaving China and India, both emerging countries with enormous populations, is just stupid. While itÕs true that the United States has had a bit of a free ride, the fact is that both countries are rapidly developing and if they follow the same path that the current developed countries followed, weÕll just be that much farther in the hole. What is needed is for all countries to work together to develop new technology to reduce pollution. Renewable energy sources need to be developed as does nuclear power. Fission can be done safely and practically if approached sensibly. Fusion will be tremendously helpful if the entrenched career fusion research physicists can be forced to produce results even though that will jeopardize their annuities (yes, IÕm cynical about fusion research).

New Job...

Posted by bolie on Tuesday, May 1, 2001 at 23:13

I started a new job at CSO/Aker Engineering last Monday. After three years designing subsea drilling and production control systems, IÕm now on the other side of the fence. IÕve already had several meetings with control systems vendor playing the part of the customer. My new job is helping oil companies develop subsea oil fields, particularly in deep water (5,000 feet or more). Essentially, IÕm a consultant and all I do is go to meetings and write reports. The job comes with some perqs that I didnÕt have before, like an office and covered parking. Oh, and more money. And that last item is what pays the mortgage and puts my daughter through school.

Two Questions...

Posted by bolie on Thursday, April 19, 2001 at 17:39

1. Why do washing machine dials only turn one way? They've been that way for decades and I would think that it would have been possible to make one that goes back if you turn past your setting. It seems like an easy thing to fix.

2. Why do microwave ovens always have the door hinge on the left? I would prefer one with the door hinge on the right because of where mine fits in my kitchen but as far as I can tell, they don't make any that way. Refrigerator doors are reversible, why not microwaves? Or at least one model with a door with hinges on the right. I find it very bizarre that they all open the same way.

If you know the answer to either of these questions, please let me know!

Ain't it Cool at McCool's... No.

Posted by bolie on Tuesday, April 17, 2001 at 23:42

Boy, these movie producers really know how to make crappy web sites. They hijack windows, resizing and relocating them at their whim. They create custom text boxes with graphical scroll bars that are difficult to see and use and often offer no visual feedback about where you are. The McCool's movie site opens up covered with bubbles that you're supposed to erase with your mouse. Unfortunately, there's no indication that you're supposed to do that, so I kept on working in another window, waiting for the bubbles to change into the site. There is no feedback link at all. I checked their privacy policy and noted the site name and then typed it in to find them.

I sent an email to the USA Films info email address from their web page and got a delivery error, so there really is no way to send feedback. I guess they know best and I I don't realize that my computer monitor isn't a movie screen or television, than that's my problem.

I recently wrote Sprint about their crappy Broadband web site (you can't even get info in availability without enabling cookies, separate input boxes for area code, prefix, and number, etc...) and got a response that the site must be user friendly because they get 200 orders a day. Actually, that was my second. The first was in all caps and told me to call their sales office for assistance. Even though my comments were directed at the web site and not the product. Oh, and Sprint lost MY order because of their crappy "user-friendly" web site.

Remodeling Again...

Posted by bolie on Saturday, April 15 2001 at 23:56

Well, I'm redesigning my site again. I don't think anyone really reads this, so I'm ditching SIPS and emphasizing the other content a bit more. I'll keep posting news and such here, along with my witty, er cynical, comments.

Crown Victoria Windows Bite

Posted by bolie on Saturday, April 14 2001 at 21:48

My Ford Crown Victoria is overall a pretty good car. it's a former cop car, so it always runs cool and is quite capable of getting out of its own way. The one problem I keep having with it is the POWER WINDOWS KEEP BREAKING. When I bought it, the passenger front window didn't work. About a year ago, the driver window broke. I tried fixing it myself, which worked, but then it failed again. This time, I took it to a mechanic and had him fix both. Somewhere in there, the back right window broke and I had it fixed. One the way home from having the last window fixed, the left rear window broke. So I had all four windows working for several hours. Now, the driver's window is broken again and it's stuck down.

I don't think my next car is going to be a Crown Victoria unless they've changed the design of the window motors and regulators.

End Daylight Savings Time

Posted by bolie on Sunday, April 08 2001 at 10:47

It's that time of the year again. Hopefully, you've already set your clocks forward by an hour. I sure wish we'd stop changing clocks and go to a more sensible time standard.

That's All Folks!

Posted by bolie on Sunday, April 08 2001 at 10:44

Well, it looks like it's time to move on to something else. The Internet is done.

School Violence and Hype

Posted by bolie on Monday, March 26 2001 at 11:29

Lately, there has been a lot of hype about school shootings. Many are calling for strict rules and profiling of students to "protect the children." In 1998 and 1999, the FBI put together The School Shooter: A Threat Assessment Perspective. The article summarizes the results of studying a number of schools and gives some very good suggestions for handling school threats. It also points out that school violence has been decreasing since 1993 (along with most other types of violent crime). It highlights the need to avoid knee-jerk restrictive "solutions" to the problem of school violence. If you're a concerned parent or interested in this problem, read the article.

Mac Palm Doc

Posted by bolie on Sunday, March 25 2001 at 21:15

If you have a Palm Pilot and a Macintosh, then you should check out Mac Palm Doc, a nifty utility for converting text files to Palm Pilot doc format. I've tried it out and it's pretty easy to use.

Broadband Options

Posted by bolie on Friday, March 23 2001 at 06:57

I've been using PDQ for DSL for a while because they offered static IP addresses cheaper than Southwestern Bell. Recently, they were bought by Internet America. When I moved, I switched service from PDQ to IA. Up until now, I hadn't had any problems but now, I've got major problems. They have continued to charge me for PDQ and changed me over to DHCP without telling me so my static IP stopped working. Finally, they set up their mail servers so I can't send email unless I use my airmail.net email address (which I don't use). They've been very unhelpful, so far. I'm looking at Road Runner and Sprint Broadband Direct, but Sprint's web site won't give me any information unless I enable cookies.

This brings up one of my pet peeves. I don't let most people set cookies because I don't necessarily want them tracking me. Many web sites complain, but keep working. Some, though, like Sprint, refuse to give you any information and the offer to help you accept cookies like you really meant to accept them but you messed something up. So, I guess I won't look at Sprint...

Palm Pilot

Posted by bolie on Friday, March 23 2001 at 06:52

I like my new palm pilot, though it's not really new, it's an old Palm III. No color, no wireless web. It does what I need, though. Since it was a gift from a friend who upgraded to a new one, I had to go to palm's website to download teh software. Yikes! What a nightmare. They have these fancy hierarchical menus that have to be generated on every page load causing a good 30 second delay. I've seen these now at a couple of web sites and I already hate them. While navigation tools are nice, they shouldn't slow down page loading since they probably won't be used on every page but you pay the penalty on every page.

Well, anyway, I got everything downloaded and now have everything at my fingertips.

The 70's

Posted by bolie on Monday, March 19 2001 at 22:50

Oh my god! I just about busted a gut when I saw this room. For this, and more tasteless 70's interior decorating, check out Ugly Rooms for the Beautiful People. Hilarious. Hideous. Thanks to Memepool.

Happy Birthday, Space Age

Posted by bolie on Friday, March 16 2001 at 11:34

Seventy-Five years ago, today, Robert Goddard kicked off the space age by launching liquid fuel rockets, much like the ones that carried astronauts to the moon. Read more in this Boston Globe article.

Oh, the Irony

Posted by bolie on Monday, March 12 2001 at 20:05

I just had to buy the latest edition of the Weekly World News. One of the cover stories is "World's Greatest Hoaxes Revealed!" Other headlines are "Is Nazi Monster Heinrich Himmler Alive? New Book Says Yes!" and "Ebola Virus in Every State . . .Now NO American is Safe!" Almost every headline ended with at least one exclamation mark. Anyway, I just thought that was hilariously ironic. Some of the hoaxes mentioned: the Piltdown Man, War of the Worlds, the Cardiff Giant, Mel Gibson as the real Man Without a Face, the Jackalope (these are real!!!), and New York Sewer Gators.

A Scary, Scary Thing

Posted by bolie on Wednesday, March 07 2001 at 23:35

I'd always heard about the Stanford Prison Experiment, but I'd never really read anything about it. Today, I found its web page. Boy, talk about a scary experiment. A psychology professor set up a mock prison in a basement at Stanford and had volunteers be prisoners or guards (randomly chosen). He had to cut the experiment short because perfectly normal students were turning into sadistic bullies (guards) and depressed and dehumanized prisoners. The effect was incredibly powerful and even the professor was drawn into it. This is a very interesting look at human nature (do we all have evil inside of us?) and at how our prison system (which has only gotten worse) dehumanizes and degrades prisoners to the point where they are essentially insane when they get out, regardless of how they were when they went in.

Copyright Abuse

Posted by bolie on Monday, March 05 2001 at 20:41

From the Constitution of the United States of America, Article I, Section 8:

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries

This is one of the powers delegated to Congress. Now, with the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, the term of a copyright is the life of the author plus 70 years or 95 years for a corporate owned work. I may be misunderstanding our forefathers, but 70 years after the death of the author seems a bit more than a "limited Time". Originally, copyrights were 14 years plus 14 more if extended. This seems like long enough to make money off of a work, especially considering that, for example, most books are out of print within five years.

This CNet article gives more details.

Oh, and with the DMCA and other laws passed recently, violating copyright has become a criminal act instead of just a tort.

Micropayments

Posted by bolie on Sunday, March 04 2001 at 15:40

Not too long ago, I read this article on the reason why micropayments will ultimately be replaced by subscriptions or flat fees. More recently, I read another article, this one about why micropayments will ultimately replace advertising. I was fascinated by both and essentially agree with both. The second article neatly sums up why advertising supported content is having problems. It holds up micropayment systems as a replacement. All of his arguments hold true for a subscription type service where you pay a flat fee and get wide access. I believe that this will ultimately be the way that content on the Internet is supported. Already umbrella organizations are bringing similar sites together, such as Big Panda for comics and About for a wider variety of content. These umbrella organizaitons could charge a small, monthly fee for access to all of their content or even offer several levels of access.

Technically, this is about her boyfriend...

Posted by bolie on Friday, March 02 2001 at 11:23

Ordinarly, the AP wouldn't write an article on the arrest and bailout of William Ashe Bridges, an ordinary 18-year-old freshman at TCU. When he called Jenna Bush and was bailed out by a suburban full of Secret Service Agents, he suddenly became newsworthy. My favorite quote in the article comes at the very end:

George W. Bush, in a 1999 interview, had expressed concerns early in his presidential campaign about the privacy of his twin daughters

I guess they just wanted to make sure everyone knew that they completely ignored his concerns and will invade his daughters' privacy every time something happens to anyone they know.

More War on Drugs Stupidity . . . mixed with American Indian Abuse

Posted by bolie on Tuesday, February 27 2001 at 13:34

Wow. The War on Drugs is stupid enough even neglecting the fact that industrial hemp is illegal. Now the US Government has combined these two with more abuse of American Indians by destroying a crop of industrial hemp growing on a reservation. The stupidity of this act is compounded by the fact that it's legal to import the hemp from Canada. I know that growing it is illegal because it's easy to hide marijuana in the hemp crop but I don't like the idea of laws that are designed to make the job of the police easier at the expense of the people. That seems very un-American.

Work in Progress

Posted by bolie on Tuesday, February 27 2001 at 08:32

Please forgive the errors and layout problems while I try to get my site fixed up. I'm trying to get the older stories to show up and add some boxes with links and such on the right. Hopefully, I'll get it all sorted out in a couple of days.

Sample Star Chart

Posted by bolie on Monday, February 26 2001 at 23:25

I'm playing around with a program to generate random star charts based on GURPS rules in GURPS Traveller: First In and GURPS Space. I've generated a Sample LST file suitable for import into ChView.

Titanium Spork

Posted by bolie on Monday, February 26 2001 at 11:36

I've always been fascinated by sporks, which is why I have a huge collection of them. This is one of the reasons I like Popeye's. But now I've found the ultimate, a titanium spork. I must have one...

The Limey

Posted by bolie on Sunday, February 25 2001 at 23:33

We sawThe Limey, with Terrance Stamp, last night. It is a strange movie of a British ex-con's quest to find out who killed his daughter and why. The flow is strange as the movie cuts back and forward in time and mixes scenes up. The effect was kind of neat, though I found it distracting and over done. The movie is kind of grim, though the violence is, for the most part, not graphic. It is frequent, though. The story is simple, but the characters are interesting. I don't recall hearing any background music, but I didn't miss it.

Buca di Beppo!

Posted by bolie on Sunday, February 25 2001 at 23:29

Buca di Beppo is a national chain, though the Houston restaurant is new. It is a good Italian restaurant with a good selection of foods that I can eat (no cheese). They serve the food family style, so the dishes are larger and you don't need one per person. The prices are typical of a nice Italian restaurant which means you get more for you money. The Calamari are excellent. The linguini frutti di mare was very good with plenty of bivalves (though I avoided them, preferring the, again, excellent calamari), though it didn't have any shrimp. The greens and beans were pretty good for a vegetable. The chicken marsala was good, though a little strange. It had huge mushrooms and tender chicken breasts but it reminded me of Chinese food and stuck out as a little odd to my taste. The service was excellent, friendly, and helpful.

The Art of War

Posted by bolie on Sunday, February 25 2001 at 22:57

I just saw The Art of War with Wesley Snipes, and I can tell you, it's nothing like the book. It is a good movie, though it could have been better. It's a combination spy thriller and action movie. Welsey Snipes delivers the martial arts action as he usually does. I wish that the plot was more complex and subtle or the action more intense. As it is, the plot is a little weak for a spy thriller and the action is a little weak for an action movie. The biggest problem with this movie is the graphic violence. While action movies are always violent, this one shows a little too much detail when people are hurt. I like my action relatively clean and not stomach-turning. Still, it's not as gory as an episode of ER. Overall, a good movie if you want some action with a bit of a twist. My wife gave it about 6 out of 10. I might give it 7 out of 10.

DeCSS

Posted by bolie on Sunday, February 25 2001 at 11:08

Check it out... a program to remove Cascading Style Sheets tags from HTML documents. It's called DeCSS and it's written in Perl. It has nothing to do with DVD "encryption" or the MPAA's futile fight to protect a monopoly on DVD readers and an outdated business model.

Now I really don't need a koozie.

Posted by bolie on Friday, February 23 2001 at 14:34

Recently, I've noticed that soft drink companies have started using the wide mouth cans. I sure wish they'd provide a narrow mouth version, too. Even with the old style hole, I never could figure out why anyone needed koozies since my drinks never had time to warm up. Now I have to work at making them last more than a couple of minutes. Either I'm the only person with this problem or the soft drink manufacturers want us to drink faster so we'll drink more... oh, yeah.

Blah Blah Blog

Posted by bolie on Thursday, February 22 2001 at 23:26

I don't really have anything to say right now. I spend my day at work and my nights with my wife and daughter and don't always have time to post. Work is particularly stressful right now and my in-laws are in town, which is good, but takes more time. I actually love having my in-laws visit. I like them and they clean up, do the dishes, fold clothes, take care of my daughter, etc... Unfortunately, they have to go back this weekend.

I've been thinking about this log. My wife doesn't understand and I can't really explain. I have been mostly posting complaints about bad people and bad companies and not much positive. This probably reflects on my attitude right now. Hopefully, I can turn that around and make some more positive posts.

User Interface

Posted by bolie on Wednesday, February 21 2001 at 10:31

Many web designers seem to be neglect the clarity and usability of their web sites. One of my pet peeves is pop up windows. I can always open a link in a new window using my web browser. If I don't, then I don't want the web site doing it for me. I especially hate those Javascript pop ups, especially when they disable features. I recently went to usnews.com's Business and Tech section and clicked on a link that opened this list in a new window. I went to lengthen the window to see more of the list but couldn't. Now why would they do that? As it was, the window only took up a tiny bit of my screen. Check out the Interface Hall of Shame for more examples of bad design. There is also a corresponding Hall of Fame.

You're not really talking about me -- are you?

Posted by bolie on Wednesday, February 21 2001 at 05:42

Check out AOLiza, a version of the old Eliza program hooked up to AOL Instant Messenger. It's amazing how long people will talk to an essentially inchoherent and repetitive AI. It's also amazing how many people want to have cybersex with it. It's some kind of commentary on humanity, the Internet, and/or AOL. And it's hilarious. While you're there, check out the rest of Kevin Fox's web site.

All your base are belong to us!

Posted by bolie on Friday, February 16 2001 at 10:32

This is the weirdest, funniest thing I've seen lately. You'll either laugh your ass off or won't get it at all. There's the original and the rock video. The video is a shockwave flash. The original posting looks like it generated a huge response. If you surf around the 'net much, you've probably seen this somewhere...

PotterWar

Posted by bolie on Wednesday, February 14 2001 at 13:44

It looks like Warner Brothers is aggressively pursuing domain names related to the Harry Potter books. They sent out a rash of letters, many of them to children, threatening legal action if they didn't turn over Harry Potter related domain names. Check out PotterWar for more info.

The book industry, the RIAA and the world wide music publishing industry, and the MPAA and the world wide motion picture industry need to get together and figure out how to make money without placing more and more restrictions on our rights to read, review, discuss, and share media in all forms. The fact is that the advent of digital media is going to make it impossible to prevent copying. Even the DMCA isn't going to stop copying. It may have some effect if it survives the Supreme Court but any success it has will be at the expense of consumers and the First Amendment.

John Gilmore has written an interesting piece on the problems with copy protection. The MPAA, RIAA, and others are madly looking for ways to force consumers to abide by their licenses and effectively take away any "fair use" rights by making them impossible to exercise even if they theoretically exist. Try making digital copies of your digital home movies...

Copyrights and patents have gotten completely out of control. Copyright was never intended to secure a perpetual income for the heirs of an author. Nor was it intended to support corporations based around cartoon characters

Baby Food

Posted by bolie on Tuesday, February 13 2001 at 23:37

As a new parent, I'm learning all about the care and feeding of babies. We're currently adding new foods to our daughter's diet, one at a time, looking for food allergies. I have a couple so we won't be surprised if she has some, too. The baby food companies helpfully seel "single ingredient" foods and single grain cereals for infants. The only problem is that we have to check the so-called "single ingredient" food because some of them have added ingredients. I've seen soy, corn oil, yeast, and various dairy products added to blended vegetables, meats, and "single grain" cereals. These are particulary concerning to me because I'm allergic to dairy and the others are common food allergens. I don't have a list of what foods have what but I have noticed that Gerber tends to be worse about this than Heinz, especially in the cereals.

The Tao of Pooh Pooh

Posted by bolie on Sunday, February 11 2001 at 22:34

I recently read "The Tao of Pooh" by Benjamin Hoff and was not impressed. It may very well be a decent explanation of what Taoism is (insofar as it can be explained) but it oversimplifies and paints too much of a black and white picture of Taoists and others.

This may just be a literary device, but I found it kind of annoying that Mr. Hoff characterized all scientists and "scholars" as being preoccupied with book learning and unable to appreciate or accept how things really are. As an engineer, I would like to explain to Mr. Hoff how we are generally leary of anyone with a lot of book learning and not experience and the best solutions are those that work with the way things are, not those that try to use brute force.

Part of my problem is that Mr. Hoff makes it sound like Cheech and Chong had the right idea: just relax and go with the flow, things will happen as they were meant to. I don't think that this theory would survive any kind of scrutiny. I suspect that there are many cases where someone trying to go with the flow gets trampled. Mr. Hoff would no doubt explain that they hadn't truly understood or truly accepted things or had missed the inevitable opportunity.

Overall, I found this book to be a waste of time though I didn't feel like I'd been robbed of my time. I'll probably go ahead and read the Te of Piglet to see what he says there. I did learn something from this book and may learn more from the next.

I'm currently reading The Art of War and The Essence of Decision. I'm reading the Art of War because it's just one of those books everyone hears about and I found a cheap hardback at Half Price Books. The Essence of Decision is a book on how models affect our perceptions, specifically how three common models used in international relations analysis color interpretiations of the Cuban Missile Crisis. I've had this book on my shelf to read since long before Thirteen Days came out, though now I'll have to rent it after I'm done with the book.

Stuart is my friend...

Posted by bolie on Sunday, February 11 2001 at 01:18

Believe it or not, Stuart is one of my best friends. He is always supportive and understanding and . . . oh, wait, this is Stuart I'm talking about. He keeps me honest by never showing any mercy. I try to return the favor. I expect you'll see his sarcastic wit here more with me as the usual target . . .

Electrotex

Posted by bolie on Sunday, February 11 2001 at 00:03

Electrotex is a good place to buy electronics and computer parts. They make custom cable and sell bulk cable and wire. I bought 1000 feet of cat 5 ethernet cable a couple of weeks ago and then returned it the next week (I realized that it was foolish to buy that much for that much money, I shouldn't have bought it in the first place). They charged me $46 "restocking fee" on a $230 spool of cable I could easily carry in one hand. The guy muttered something about not normally taking wire back but I guess he thought he was being generous. Looks like I'll be going to EPO (Electronic Parts Outlet) in the future. It's a little farther away but they haven't screwed me out of $50, yet. I probably should have argued with the guy, but he probably would have refused to take it back if I had.

Bolie's message board

Posted by bolie on Friday, February 09 2001 at 19:20

Stuart Hall, M.D. writes, "It is a terrible thing to lose one's mind. I want to applaud Bolie's new forum for venting his feelings. Those of you not so close to him may not realize the important role this page plays in his community-service-cum-therapy program. People like Bolie desperately need to feel like people are listening, and are less concerned that people respond. [All web counters on these pages are programmed to add a random number of "hits" each day to help Bolie's ego.] So read, enjoy, and post as your heart desires. As the anesthesiologist member of Bolie's care team, I'd like to assure you that the angrier posts have lead to increased sedation."

Internet Explorer

Posted by bolie on Friday, February 09 2001 at 11:35

Well, after trying to upgrade to Netscape 6, I decided to go with the latest version of Internet Explorer. It works pretty well except for the shortcuts. Microsoft has set them up as shortcut files in a directory instead of a simple html file like Netscape. This means that I can't change the order (they reorder alphabetically, though I bet I could change the folder to by date or size or whatever) and they are s-l-o-w to load. I suppose it's reading the files from the disk each time I click the menu. I used to use my shortcuts to organize my daily comic run but now I may have to create a web page to help. Sigh. Overall, though, it's better than Netscape 4.7x and Netscape 6. I just wish Mozilla had better encryption and other features so I could use it.

Houston Pork-Dome

Posted by bolie on Friday, February 09 2001 at 11:28

I'm glad that the contracts for the new stadium the Rockets and Comets extorted out of us are being awarded on the basis of race and not qualifications. First racism was bad and now it's good again. I think it's still bad for me to be racist because I'm white or for someone to treat me preferentially. According to the story, the builders are selecting on race (racism) to meet a predetermined percentage of HUB's (30% quota). Sigh.

Netscape 6 - thumbs down

Posted by bolie on Thursday, February 08 2001 at 19:18

Wow, I just "upgraded" to Netscape 6. It's terrible. So many little user interface problems. I guess software developers are so focused on getting the back end right or hitting delivery and rolling in the latest features (like skins) that they forget about basic usability. I finally gave up and downgraded to Internet Explorer, which is stable and works well. I hate that the Microsoft product is better...

Here's my list of problems: I can't change my buttons to text only (I guess I have to make up my own "skin" to do that). I can't figure out to set up my own style sheet (the help has no information on style sheets). I had to manually type in the location of my existing mail file (NS4.7x let me browse). It couldn't migrate my existing profile because there isn't enough space. I have at least 150 MB free on both C: and D: drives. Perhaps it's upset because my mail is 320 MB but it shouldn't have to make a copy of it... In fact, I just pointed it at my old mail folder and it works. It's missing the custom icon for Netscape Mail like NS4.7x had for setting up a shortcut to launch mail directly. I have separate shortcuts for mail and web. And the worst thing it does is mix and match URLs when using my bookmarks or going back and forward. This is really bizarre... it will change the machine name and keep the file portion of the URL and then try to reload. It does this when I use back, reload, or select a bookmark. It doesn't always do it and retyping usually fixes it. Even stranger, sometimes the URL in the URL window changes and sometimes it doesn't even though it's going to a different machine. This is really annoying. Sigh. It renders CSS/HTML4.01 much better than NS4.7x and will still load pages even if it can't find a stylesheet or other component so there is one improvement. Man, what a nightmare. Oh, and Java doesn't seem to work very well, either, even though it installed Java 2.
And what's with these installers? I would rather download the whole thing and then install rather than have to download an installer then immediately start downloading again.

Throw the book at them...

Posted by bolie on Thursday, February 08 2001 at 17:45

I'm glad that we're arresting twelve year old boys for fighting in school. I remember when I got in fights in school, I would get sent to the principal's office or have to write an essay on why I shouldn't fight in the locker room. It doesn't help that the boy who was arrested was black while the white boy wasn't arrested. Sigh. First it was charging little boys who kissed little girls with sexual harrassment and now it's arresting boys who fight in school. I guess we must have lots of room in our prisons and we might as well put someone in there.

My husband, folks.

Posted by bolie on Thursday, February 08 2001 at 09:22

Candice G. Williams writes "Yes, you guessed it. I have been asked to post. Well, I personally don't really feel the need to post to a web page so my views can be read by the entire world. My husband on the other hand feels strongly that it is important for you to hear him. Perhaps it is ego that explains this, perhaps it is some exhibitionist quality or perhaps he just likes this new Sips software. I was told I could post all I wanted, but I fear he may revoke my license after this one. I love him very much, please don't get me wrong. But here's to my first and last post!!! Hoorah!"

Welcome to the new site!

Posted by bolie on Wednesday, February 07 2001 at 23:04

Welcome to the new site. It shouldn't be too different in appearance but easier for me to post and maintain. I'm using SIPS as the basis for my weblog. The other pages are the same as they were. It will take me a while to get the stories from the old index loaded up in this new fangled contraption.