Friday, January 11, 2002
I finished Buck O'Neil's book this morning. It captivated me and I read the last ten pages over coffee this morning. Truly an inspiration. I told my wife last night that I want to go to Kansas City this spring and see the Negro Baseball Museum and try to meet Mr. O'Neil. I highly recommend this book to everyone.
All this reading over the last few weeks got me thinking. I asked my wife and was wondering what would be her choice: being a famous athlete, or a famous entertainer (actor, musician, singer, etc.). She choose entertainer, though it was a hard choice. I think I'd do athlete. I started an essay (some work to be done here) along with the results of my informal poll.
Yucca Mountain has been chosen for storing nuclear waste, but the fight continues. I remember in the mid 90s, I was working at a nuclear power plant and this was the plan then. It seemed to have died away, but I guess not. I know many plants around the country are filling their storage areas, so something has to be done. An interesting debate on Slashdot.
Also the last installment of the cyber law journal along with a debate. Interesting to see what some well known law professors predict for digital law.
An editorial from Richard Stallman about not sending Word document attachments in email. I agree with some of what he says, but not for the same reasons. I'm not a MS advocate or complaintant. I think they have some questionable business pratices, but I think most companies do. Ethics are not as much a part of business as they should be. However, I also think that etiquette is important. Forcing someone to work in a way is not something we all want. I wish that RTF was an easily used format for most people and they'd send email like that. I dislike HTML for many of the reasons that are given for Word. It can cause interactions, contain javascript, etc. that I do not want running. Personally, I think asking for plain text for RTF is acceptable and I wouldn't mind seeing more people do that.
Thursday, January 10, 2002
Watched Rudy again last night. My wife got it for me for Christmas on DVD and haven't watched it yet (though I've seen it a few times). I love that movie and what a story. Somone with a dream that just wouldn't give up. Not a 'domer, but it's a great story.
My back is killing me. I have an 8 month old who is getting ready to walk. She never wants to sit still, so I hold her hands and she pulls herself up and can "walk" around if I keep hold of her hands. She'll walk all around our house, upstairs, downstairs, for a good 10-15 minutes until she sees something that catches her interest. Of course a couple minutes later, she wants to do it again. It's actually fun to see her smile and giggle as she walks, but there's one problem. She's 2 ft and change and I'm 6 ft. And if I drop my arms to my side, they don't really reach the 2ft something mark. So I have to bend slightly. It's amazing how much of a strain that little bend makes. It reminds me of my 3 yr old learning to walk a little more than 2 years ago. Kids....Love em, but they make you work.
Got an email from a friend and former collegue in Canada. He worked for a company that my previous company bought and we got to work together a bit to try and get our IT departments in synch. He is renting an RV and driving from Montreal to Vancouver this summer. Sounds like fun and something I'd like to do someday when the kids are older.
Two amazing articles on Slashdot today. First, Jon Johansen was arrested in Norway because he was part of the DECSS DVD descrambling/cracking/whatever program. Some interesting arguements in the commentary about whether this is illegal. Under the DMCA, it is, but I'm not sure this will stand up in the courts. It's interesting because it's reverse engineering. Something usually protected under law. Second, you have purchased the DVD and are entitled to use it as you see fit, fix a wobbly table, watch it on your DVD player or read the data in a computer. Like a VHS tape, I would expect a copy would be acceptable. Now, making a copy and decoding are different things as there are numbers of programs that can copy block by block without decoding the disc. Decoding, however, is a grey area. How is a crime committed if the video is decided by DECSS or by the algorithm (which must be similar if not the same) in the DVD player. A stupid argument by the RIAA and company, but interesting.
Second, an article about a Video-Napster. And an effort to "tag" video and track down infringers. It is impossible to copy protect things. At least from everyone. You can from a majority because a majority don't care. I am among them in general. I want my DVD player to play in my laptop and in my DVD player. Do I care to "crack" or copy them? Only for a backup because I have kids that scratch the media. In fact, they have scratched a number of CDs. Fortunately I managed to copy a few of them so I can still hear the music.
It's crazy for them to copy protect, but even crazier that they spend so much money on it. The thing that is flat out wrong here is the persecution of people who figure these things out. I'm fine with persecuting people who are copying CDs and selling them, or even giving them to their friends. Persecute people who steal content on LimeWire, Morpheus, etc. This is theft and isn't covered under fair use. But making a copy for my personal use or archival is my fair use. In this context, who cares about copy protection. do a block by block copy.
The trial in which a Dad beat his son's Hockey coach to death ended arguments today. Not sure what will happen and I honestly do not know all the details, but I cannot imagine that he should get off. A few kids asw him beat the man. Is there any reason why you should come to blows over a disagreement over coaching? I don't know, but as a former coach for little kids, I'm not sure I'd want to coach anyone over 10.
Someone posted a request for suggestions for a documentation program on Slashdot. I posted a comment subject PEBKAC (Problem exists between Keyboard and chair), which sparked quite a debate. It was interesting to see how many people attacked the guy who attacked me.
wish me luck. My Trooper has needed work for a few months (valve cover gasket replacement), but I've put it off. Over the last 3 weeks, it's been hesitating when I accelerate. Not sure if I have a transmission issue for engine issue, but it is worrisome. It goes into the shop today. :(
Wednesday, January 9, 2002
A hilarious account of a spammer. I saw the link on Slashdot, but you can go directly to the link at http://petemoss.com/spamflames/ShifmanIsAMoronSpammer.html. Sad when people don't want to abide by the common rules of a situation. I guess that is why we end up with so many laws.
Updating this isn't too bad. A few friends have asked, but I keep this open all day and add updates as necessary or when I get a couple minutes. Visual Interdev takes care of the auto updating and saving on the server, though I use EditPlus for the editing, a great little editor that color codes files of all types, perl, c, asp, vbscript, etc. I was hoping to find some software to automatically do this. MoveableType looks good, but there are no Windows instructions and I don't have the time (currently) to mess with it.
Well, my house is almost back in order. When the water line broke and flooded the basement, a diaster service came and dried everything out. Unfortuneatle, the carpet then stretched out. Yesterday we had a carpet service come out and trim the carpet and tack it back down. Now I spoke with the diaster guy and he is coming to shampoo the carpet tomorrow. It still smells musty, but I really hope they can clean it, otherwise we are looking at replacement, which will further delay my home office being set back up.
Testing a blogger software at work making some notes about the company. I'd like to do a piece at the end of the year that looks back at the year. I was planning on doing one for my relatives, complete with pictures. I'd like to bind it as a book and send it out as a Dec-Dec history of the family. We'll see.
Tuesday, January 8, 2002
I finished "Thirteen Days" last night. It was interesting, not the greatest movie, more of a documentary feel in places, but an incredible story. This section of US History isn't my strong area, so I'm not sure how much is true. But, what an incredible decision that Kennedy had to make. Enough of a reason for me to never want to be President.
Started reading an article about Employeees criticizing former employees (or current) and their right to speech. I tend to think that one can criticize another, but not in a libelous manner and certainly not in a SPAM type way.
A busy day at work along with an all-hands meeting for the company. With 32 people, this isn't too hard to setup. Nothing earth shattering and some skepticism from my collegues over some of the messages, but I like these meetings. They give us a chance to re-align everyone's expectations of the company. Just last month I started to finally feel like my company (a startup) would survive to a cash-flow positive position and allow me to work there for the foreseeable future. In these dark times, that was a nice feeling.
Monday, January 7, 2002
Submitted this nonsense to Chris Pirillo at Lockergnome. We'll see if he includes it in his list of blogs (or weblogs).
Watched part of "Thirteen Days" last night. My wife fell asleep and didn't want to watch too much without her as I liked the story. Of course, Kevin Costner doesn't do the Boston accent any better than the English one. If you've never seen it, it's about the 13 days in 1961 when missles (nuclear ballistic ones) were discovered in Cuba by the US and the tensions that escalater between the US and the USSR. My wife had never heard of it and I'm not sure what she thinks of it, but I was fascinated. It's a tremendous quandry. What would you have done? Attacked? Risked nuclear war? Go the diplimatic route? Keep in mind these missles are 5 minutes from DC (Launch to impact). No time to do anything. Glad I didn't have to choose what to do. I'll find out tonight what happens.
An amazing new home multimedia product called Moxi. It's at www.moxi.com. Finally a device that does almost exactly what I would want from a multimedia device. Not sure if I'd get one, but the pre-buzz seems to be a ~$250 device. Right where I'd make a quick purchase.
Another copyright / MS bash day at Slashdot. I constantly see posts about how people will just return a CD they cannot copy and go get it from Morpheus/Kaaza/Limewire or some other P2P service. If you don't like the product because they implement copy protection, then by what right can you just "steal" it. If you really want an MP3 version, buy the CD and then get it from KaaZa. At least then I'd argue you were within your "fair use" of the content.
and by the way. If the music or video being released now is so crappy, why does it sell so well? I'm no fan of Brittany Spears, but my son is. Who out there has the right to judge that as crap? I may think it is, but I don't think he has to as well. If you don't like it, don't buy it. That's the beauty of the US.
Mike Shanahan has been rumored to be going to Florida ot coach the Gators. Fine with me. I think he hasn't done a great job, primarily because a number of personel decisions. I thought letting Steve Atwater and a number of veterans was a bad move 2 years ago. I also think that the money spent on Brian Griese was ill spent. Not that Brian isn't a good quarterback, but he's not a comeback guy. If the Broncos are behind in the 4th quarter, I'd be betting that they'd lose the game. He runs a good offense, but can't recover from mistakes or from behind. His handling of Terrell Davis over the last two years was also poor.
Overall, I think his acting as GM and head coach is a bad idea. Bad for any team. Almost no one (pehaps no one) has pulled it off.
And I almost forgot! Did anyone see the Michael Jordan highlight last Friday (1-4)? He made the best block I think I have ever seen by an NBA player. After getting a shot partially blocked, and no foul called, he chased down the court and as one of the Bulls was getting ready to lay in the ball, he pinned it with both hands to the backboard. Then he glared down for a split second before passing the ball off. It was something out of Hollywood!
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