steven n fettig's Jitterin' Thoughts

CNet reports: Web filters blocking health sites
No, really... who cares? Who ever said that content - whatever you want - is what you have a right to? Sooner or later, we will find that we have a right to anything we want... and I call that ridiculous.

I found an interesting article by UPI (which, incidentally, I have never heard of) about the possible causes of Parkinson's disease. I would love to find out more what the causes of Parkinson's is, as my grandmother died partly due to the disease...

I ran across this site this site which mentioned an article on oreillynet.com about bloated sites... I like the reminder. As I surf around the net, it is all too aparent that people have forgotten the masses out there forced to live with dial-up internet services. Think of this: over 60% of our population in the United States (and Canada for that matter) live in rural areas. With the cost and/or demise of satellite internet service providers and 3G not yet being where it should be, we really tend to make it difficult for dial-up users to use the net by not paying attention to bloated site syndrom. I could go on, and on - as usual - but I won't. I hope my point was made succinctly enough.

    From everyone here at the Fettig house, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and hope all is well in the New Year! Frohe Weihnachten und guten Rutsch ins neue Jahr!

- Steve & Steffi

    I have moved most of my personal commentaries and stuff to another blog... I don't want to unduly sway someone's opinion of the businesses I am involved in because of my ideology. Ideology is something that evolves and changes over the course of time... hence, I moved that portion of my psyche to a different area of the net. I feel freed by finally making the split. I will now devote this weblog to things related to Anywhere Technology and mainly computer related issues. I am currently working on stevenfettig.com v. 3.1a - you can't see it yet because I am currently in the "idealized design phase." Please, please, if you are interested in the more personal side of myself, drop me a line and I will let you in on the secret of where the other side of my personality resides.
    I hope everyone's holiday treated them well! I have to say that I had a wonderful Christmas... As I get older (which isn't that old), I find more joy in giving than receiving. There is something more exciting about watching someone's expression as they open your gift than having your thirst for material things quenched by another yet-to-be-thrown-away object.

I wish everyone out there a very Happy New Year!

It has been quite some time since I last added to this weblog. I moved (as stated I think many times before) most of my personal commentaries to a different area of the web to try and divide personal interests from my technical and business interests. Work has kept me so busy lately that I have not been able to get much further on my stevenfettig.com v. 3a project. I would like to transform the incoming page into a totally MT based site instead of the phpNuke/MT combination. I do like phpNuke, but am finding it a bit unwieldy at times and since my ability to spend large amounts of time on computer projects has diminished in proportion to the passing of time, I want something a little simpler... Now, if I could only pay someone a reasonable amount of money to do the work for me!

One reason for writing today, however, was not to simply rehash old news in the world of the web, but to mention a project I have been working on for Tankcraft relating to the slow, slow, slow transition from Windows machines to Linux. After much debate, I finally downloaded and installed a copy of RedHat (Linux) 8.0 and have honestly been impressed... very impressed. Some things do frustrate me - like the subtle differences between FreeBSD and RedHat Linux that make installation and modification of packages like Apache extremely frustrating and time consuming* - but for the most part, I am impressed with the interface. I gave up on using FreeBSD as a desktop alternative (although I will never give it up on the servers running this whole 'thang) because of lack of time, lack of patience and again, lack of time. I would really enjoy switching everything to the Mac platform, because that would be really easy and I could continue to use all of my favorite Unix apps, but I am not about to spend the money on the hardware (unless someone wants to buy a PowerEdge 1300 and Intellistation M Pro Dual PII 450 from me for about $2000.00 for the pair). I'll wait until what I have simply won't run anymore - which will be quite a while from now. By that time, maybe (just maybe) FreeBSD will have made it to where I want it to be for the desktop... and then I won't care about using the Mac platform.

Well, a few hours after writing my last rant, I came across the following article in InformationWeek: Microsoft Warns Of Open-Source Pricing Threat

Perhaps more people are evaluating Microsoft's pricing. I honestly didn't think the day would come this soon, but you never know.

By the way, my complaint about Microsoft has little to do with the products themselves - actually, I am usually pretty happy with Windows and Office for basic stuff. Sure, there is a lot of unnecessary bloat, but it works on an amazing number of systems. I just can't stand the pricing...

A while back I wrote about my ridiculous addiction to technology and while cooking some spaghetti for my dinner tonight, I was once again confronted by how crazy the lust for technology becomes. I was explaining to my wife why we should simply say screw-it to Ameritech/SBC and go with SprintPCS's biggest shared plan and therefore be rid of the multiple FCC charges and crazy fees that Ameritech charges for services. While this idea seemed quite intelligent to me while driving home from work, the more I explained it to my wife, the more I realized that I'm losing it. Not that I won't save money, etc., but really that I come up with a new scheme to save money on telephone costs about ever 2 minutes. This one (the longer I thought about it) was actually prompted by my desire to rid myself of phone, phone and Palm (actually Sony Clie). Yes, I have two wireless phones. One for internet access, one provided to me from the business I work for (for mostly business use) and the Clie for remembering to forget everything I need to do today/tomorrow/next year. I want to buy another gadget - and that's what it really comes down to. Yes, I still think some of the charges we pay to Ameritech and the FCC are crazy (like having to pay the universal fund charge twice - once for our local line and once to our long distance/international telephone company). There really are two things certain about life: death AND taxes. This time my desire for a new gadget was coupled with an attempt to circumvent one of those... Crazy, I tell ya.

I had intended to blog CeBIT, live. What happened? Simply put, I couldn't. The price for data over my GPRS phone from T-Mobile Germany was like getting *expletive* over a barrel. On top of that, I wasn't allowed to take pictures of any of the things that really interested me because apparently I looked like a company spy from that other company. What I still would like to do is show two products that I really liked. One was a hard drive attached to a mini file server (weighing about double what the hard drive would normally weigh) and a power brick (external battery) for laptops. The cool thing about the brick was that it can be used for pretty much any brand and the only thing you needed to do was get a different adapter for your specific laptop and it would adjust for the flavor (i.e. voltage) of electricity your unit needs. I may get around to that this week still. First, however, I want to finish my HOWTO (for qmail) translation.

     The picture should say it all:

     I may spend a good amount of my time debating (internally and written) the value of Microsoft products over those that can be found in the Open Source world. I have done quite a bit of work with mostly Open Source products in the past three years and am convinced that especially for small businesses, Open Source products (software) will provide us the relief we desperately need from the ever increasing complexity and cost of software products. The types of discounts that academic and large organizations get on software from organizations like Microsoft are enormous in comparison with the per user costs that a business of 25 users or less must sustain, thus while we might enjoy Microsoft products for little money in school and perhaps at the large company we work at, when we go into the smaller, real world, those prices rise dramatically. Another issue comes to mind, however. While teaching a Windows 2000 Server admin class at a local college, I realized how little time is spent on focusing on problem solving instead of dealing with the latest and greatest. What this leads to is an overemphasis on dealing with new technology, instead of focusing on using current technology and appropriately integrating it into the work environment. Part of this obsession with new technology makes us forget that old and current technology needs to be maintained. While Microsoft is constantly focusing on the next upgrade path, we continue to suffer from patches gone uninstalled, etc. I don't blame Microsoft for this dilemma - I also blame the administrators. An administrator's job should not just be to bow to every whim of the public they server (their job is like any leader - they should be aware of the pitfalls of constant change), but to guide through logic and intelligence.

See the latest article at The Inquirer: RIAA an undemocratic, unelected, overpowerful regime I simply link to the article because it says what I feel best. The RIAA's fight against piracy reminds me of Voodoo Science. Please just read the article.

Before I happened across the world of *nix/FreeBSD and now OS X from Apple I never cared much about the idea of learning how to program. In fact, the idea of learning how to program was somewhat repulsive. Strong word? Yes, but really, I had a slight distaste for the very idea of spending my time on learning how to program. I've gone 180 degrees over the past six years. It all has to do with my encounter with the non-Windows universe (a universe I used to make fun of). Now, as I happen across awesome little utilities like Clutter, I find myself envious of those who spent their youth learning how to actually manipulate a computer instead of simply use and configure one. Those in the world of computing hopefully know the distinction I am making. I'm like one of those guys in a lab who is given the task of reverse-engineering products that come on the market. I have very little creative talent when puting theory (namely, numerical, programmatic and mathematical) into practice. So, I am envious. I am now simply working up the courage to learn... learn how to apply theory.

I can't get enough of the DMCA topic. For the same reason people continue to watch a movie they consider disgusting/disturbing, I am fascinated by the DMCA debate that has just begun. With the RIAA sending out apologies for erroneous claims and threats, I am reminded of the concept that the government never has to say it is sorry because it controls the definition of error. I think my dad said that years ago in an ordeal with a state regulatory agency. Large organizations (like the RIAA) with ferocious laws behind them are the same. Regardless of the logic (or lack thereof) of a given law, we have bowed down to the statement that ignorance is no excuse for too long. I am appalled by that statement for many reasons. If ignorance is not an excuse under any circumstance, then we ignore the fact that humanity is fallible. The DMCA is a bad law and our lawmakers are ignorant for not realizing this. Maybe they will finally be hung by their own words.

This rant brought to you by: RIAA apologizes for erroneous letters

    After much thought has been given to a few new article/post ideas, I decided to be ueber lazy - and not do anything. There is good reason, though. I'm in Germany for the holidays - visiting Steffi's family and as many friends as we can. A few things I am hoping to work on, however, when I get back:
- Review of Treo 600
- Review of VerizonWireless Data Service
- Short Review of Data services in Germany (if anyone cares)
- Much needed update of the qmail howto pages (Olli has made some important updates that I have not totally followed - sorry)
... and a few other things. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas - and has a wonderful New Years, too!
Tja, wieder an die nicht-Arbeit. Es macht mir wieder Spass im Lande zu Sein. Wenn (deutsche/europaeische) Bekannten diese Seite zufaellig vor Silvester besuchen, bitte ruf mich an! +49 171 855 1465 Sonnst, ich wuensche euch wunderbare Feiertage!

I have become so reliant on using my laptop when away from home - actually, I have been this way for many years since traveling or living in Germany - that I usually bring a backup with me. This year I actually used the backup - the same year that I almost decided to give up on bringing a backup with me. Since my last bought with expensive-brand-new-computer-gone-kaputt in '99, I haven't had any problems except when Steffi needs to use it and I get irritated because she's taking way too long.
The irritating thing, however, is that when one gets used to a way of doing things and has to rely on a just okay backup, one realizes how reliant one is on the normal way of doing things. Because of selling a few PowerBooks I had collected over the last year for different projects, I decided to get one of the brand-new 15" PowerBooks due to the higher screen resolution (which I find quite handy because when working on daily tasks, I often have reading material on the right hand side with working materials on the left - i.e. reading materials I am working off of or using for examples). I got it ready along with three extra batteries because I wasn't sure if I would have access to power on the flight. Alas, I spent most of the flight talking to a gentleman from the UK who has spent a lot of time in the US and traveling elsewhere, so I didn't actually need the extra power. On top of that, the plane had DC power, for which I had an adapter.
When I finally arrived "home" in Germany, I used up another of the batteries and went to plug in the PowerBook to charge the second empty. A few hours I came back and the battery was still empty. I thought in passing that the battery may have been a bad one, as I didn't use it often, so I simply plugged in one of the other empties and went on my merry way. Again, I came back a few hours later finding that nothing had happened. Only then did I start to guess what was going on. About a year ago, I had a PowerBook with a bad "DC-Board" - rather, I found out what it was called after calling Apple for repair assistance. (Which was an extremely frustrating phone conversation: "Sir, what seems to be the problem?" I answered, "Well, when I plug in the AC Adapter, I get shocked by touching the case of the computer." He replied, "So what do you want us to do?" At that point, I could't believe what I was hearing. I said I was being shocked by the case and was not refering to a static shock. Those are two completely different things. I explained this and he seemed even less impressed - at which point I exploded and read him the riot act and asked how he figured that it made sense that I get a 120V shock from the case of the machine when I plugged it in - regardless of which AC Adapter I used. He didn't react much to my irritation and finally allowed me to return it for repair. This is the point at which I learned that PowerBooks have a DC regulator attached to the motherboard. It was that part that had gone bad and allowed current to travel through the case into me...) So, knowing that PowerBooks are covered worldwide, I called the service center in California to see what could be done because without being able to charge the rest of the batteries, I'd only last 4-6 more hours and finally run out of juice. They said it could be repaired within 4-6 business days. Wonderful. I would be leaving to go home about the time that it would be returned to me - worse yet it might arrive after leaving. The next day, I ran around Hamburg trying to find a place that could fix it sooner. No luck. So there I was with a $2000 "nagel-neuen" laptop that had a bum part in it (only to find out that the Apple centers in Hamburg were seeing a lot of this from the new PowerBooks).
I have now had this problem with three PowerBooks out of 23. Those are really bad statistics. While I still would highly recommend people buy the PowerBook in comparison to other machines - you can forget Windows machines (which is my next subject) - I think Apple should pay better attention to their notebook/laptop lines. In the last two years, there have been a slew of issues - battery problems, screen problems, logic board failures, etc. While I can understand (not accept, but understand) a sub $500 laptop, I can't understand it coming from a company that has high priced equipment, over which they have control of manufacturing and the OS. (In fact, that has been one of the selling points of Apple products is that they are designed from the ground up with attention being given to how well the hardware functions with the software.) I have had two 15" PowerBooks with bad screens, three with bad DC-Boards, two with bad Superdrives and two with hard drives that have failed within two months of purchasing them. Considering the sheer number of laptops I've gone through this may not seem surprising, but considering the actual percentages we are talking about (around 5% failure), that is not good.
The fact is, though, I still enjoy using OS X/Apple products much more so than Windows. Windows has become so flaky over the years that it pains me to work on the machines when I have to do heavy work (like invoice mailings or a lot of writing). I had the luck of brining my OQO with, but have found that many things are a pain to work with under Windows because it simply isn't integrated (OpenSSH, for example). While OS X does tend to suffer a bit in the www rendering department, internet and network stuff simply works so much better that I can live with the minor irritant. On the positive side of the OQO, it is so tiny that it can be carried along like a PDA (I'd hate to have the thing on my belt, though) and is great for quick access to email, internet and all of the programs and attachments that one might need to use. I have to say that despite the fact it runs Windows, it does a fantastic job because it is a full computer and not a wanna-be like Windows Mobile or Palm devices. (I highly recommend the machine if you travel a lot and need to have a backup machine on hand. If you do little correspondence while travelling - i.e. typing - then it may even be good enough to be your only travel machine. Although, then you're left without a backup, which is the whole point of this post.)
So ends my story. The moral is: don't leave home without a backup.

If I were to talk about purchasing DVD's and ripping the collection so I could watch it on remote TV's in my own home, would I be breaking the law? If I were to go beyond talking about it and do it (i.e. set up a storage system whereby individual computers or custom made devices could access the VIDEO_TS folders), would I be breaking the law? The fact that I can't figure out what I can or can't do with my own DVD collection is more than irritating. I've been reading here and there about other's disdain for DRM - some of whom feel they are forced to violate the law - and sat back in my comfy chair righteously thinking how much of a good boy I'm being by purchasing all my music and video content from legitimate sources, only to realize while trying to make access to my video collection I was running into an issue where I had no idea whether or not what I wanted to do was legal. I relish in my rights to private property and the last thing I think anyone has the right to do is to come on my property or in my house to inspect what I am doing - physically or digitally. Yet, the latest snafus over Sony's Rootkit and ColdPlay's CD insert have made me think twice about these issues. One of the most irritating issues is why I can't share video at home like I do my CD's - i.e. use devices like Sonos or iTunes music sharing. What about video - specifically DVD's - makes it so special. I had originally looked for a commercial device to rip all my DVD's and consoles to play them over the network on a given TV. After much searching, there is no straight-forward way to do this. You always have to (illegally, I think) modify the content of the DVD - i.e. rip it into a single mpeg4 file, etc. - in order to play it on the remote device (say a elgato EyeHome, for example) - at which point the value of the DVD is lost because you no longer have access to chapters or extra features without going through great pains to make them work again.
This is sad. It almost makes me want to go out and simply download the content from P2P networks... If I can't do sensible and legal things with content I spend good money on, then why try doing it legally at all? Worse yet (for the industry), quit using it in the first place.

There has been much ado about Apple's new packaging of products like iLife and when I just received my copy, I had to comment. What the heck took so long? I've never understood the ridiculous wastefulness of the way software has been packaged over the years. We rarely receive any documentation with software anymore, so what use is it packaging it in a textbook sized box? The sad part, however, was the box it came in. It was still your standard 8"x11"x5" box. I guess it is a start, though.
I've tried to complain to companies like CDW (one of my biggest suppliers of tech equipment) about the huge packages that I get for parts like RAM (why is RAM shipped in a shoe-box?), but have had no luck. They state it is because of inventory control. Okay - I understand, but with all of the technology we have these days, aren't there easier ways of controlling whether or not something walks out of your warehouse without being paid for? Or if it is a problem with the shipping companies, isn't there a way to simply say no and tell them that they have to learn to deal with shipping smaller packages without them also walking away?
For all the defending I do of our country and culture, this is one area where we are extremely guilty of unnecessary excess that can easily be changed without changing our habits. Hopefully this will start a small revolution.

On the heels of my last posting involving my disgust with the concept of a tiered internet and the completely uneducated comments that the CEO's of telcos are making these days, comes another gem:

Please. Google and MSN don't have bills for the bandwidth they consume? What is he smoking? He is making claims that providers of content aren't paying for the type of bandwidth (QoS/guaranteed, etc). This flies in the face, however, of the fact that operations like Google, MSN, Yahoo pay for mega pipelines to the internet that us geeks sitting behind our capped upstream connections can only dream of. Not only do they pay for their fat pipes (which should be covering the costs that Whitacre claims are not being covered), but they are paying multiple providers for their pipes to make sure that their content gets to the user as quickly as possible. If Whitacre wants to complain about the size of the payments he is receiving, then maybe he's simply dreaming of the mono-telco days of yesteryear. What seems to slowly come to the surface in all of the complaints we are hearing from the telco boys is this: they want to convince us that they are not getting their fare share and that the government should step in to assist them assist us. They are scared and it shows. By placing controls on how content is delivered from one side of the net to the other, they take back some of the control they had when our phone lines were captive portals into our homes only to find DSL had competition from cable, wireless (in the form of WaveRider, Trango, Canopy, WiMax, and cell companies), etc. - and the competition was working hard to get our money instead of them.
While these guys continue talking in circles, I hope the rest of us are able to see what it is for: competition is hard and they want it easy.

Frequently enough the rounds get made on the OpenBSD mailing lists regarding hardware that some n00b (newbie) wants support for and people either harshly or calmly explain that the lack of support for xyz are for a few reasons, but the most important is usually that hardware company abc doesn't have or refuses to provide thorough hardware documentation so that good drivers may be written. Worse, is being confronted by products that you purchase which are advertised to be compatible or will work with something and come to find that there is no explanation for how it is supposed to work with that something.
I just have figured out how to configure an Asterisk server for use in my home office and for eventual use in our office at Tankcraft. I was looking for a reasonably priced FXS/FXO SIP device for use with some analog lines that aren't easy to wire to where my Asterisk installation is. So, through a bit of research and price comparisons, I found the Linksys/Sipura SPA-3000 and the Zoom Model 5801.
vs. The Zoom is specifically advertised as having "Proven compatibility with SIP-standard servers from Asterisk, Cisco, NetCentrix, Quintum and more" (bold my emphasis). Considering the Zoom 5801 retails for around $30 less than the Linksys/Sipura and it is advertised as having proven compatibility with Asterisk, it was a relatively easy choice.
My mistake. I should have paid close attention to the product support page. If you take a close look at the specific documents available on the 5801 you will find nothing by way of comprehensive documentation on the functions available through the 5801's user interface. This is nonsense. I am so sick of buying products with little or no instructional support. I'm not asking someone to hold my hand through the configuration and use process, but how the hell do you expect me to leave your tech support people to more important problems when basic configuration instructions aren't available and make no reference to the products you supposedly support. This is what I lost when I decided to save $30. $30 times a few devices isn't all too much, but if we were looking at deploying tens, hundreds or thousands of them, it would make a difference.
I have now not only wasted enough time on trying to do my best at figuring out where the settings were that I needed access to, but I also ended up writing Zoom to see if they could provide assistance (I guarantee that I have blown way beyond the $30 I saved on each of the three ATA's I bought). Who knows what will come of my tech support request. (It may be positive or negative.) I will certainly avoid products like this in the future and will be unlikely to buy products from them again.

I am not a programmer. I aspire at times to become one, but I don't consider myself to be in that league of extraordinary gentlemen (forgive the movie reference). I have tended to be a tinkerer, put it all together guy - figure out what the problems are and find someone who can help with fixing the technicalities (e.g. reprogramming) of a given problem. I have been spending more time lately trying to understand how programming conceptually works (object oriented vs. things like programing in c) and one of the biggest actual programing projects I've ever been involved in was done primarily in Ruby/Rails. In the years since college, I have somehow been able to avoid learning anything solid and complete when it comes to anything. (That's a subject to discuss on as one of my alter egos.) There is one thing, however, that I have learned and learned quite well: there is no lack of crap software out there and there is no lack of people who think they are programmers and yet don't have the gumption to follow through on a project when they run into problems. People often (even the smart ones who know better) expect stuff to just work and when it doesn't, they like to point the finger.
My years of reading the misc@openbsd.org list has taught me an invaluable lesson of what comment with or without context actually means. OpenBSD is known for a lot of things, the most important of which is security. The other thing that most people know about OpenBSD is that the misc@ list is relentless when it comes to picking apart people who don't take the time to do their homework. Before I felt comfortable with the inside (and mind you, I rarely post or answer anything on the misc@ list) workings and the people who put their souls into the project, I was always nervous that the questions I was about to ask would be torn to shreds and my tattered remains be paraded about in some sick sort of "let's tar and feather the idiot orgy." That never happened. I've never seen it happen to someone who is genuinely trying to do their homework and are stumped. I see it when it is deserved. By deserved, I mean someone who hasn't taken the slightest bit of time to google a question or even look at OpenBSD's main web page and handbook. Let me put it simply: people, OpenBSD is developed by people because they want to do it and it is free for you to use. You didn't pay for it, so you have no right to expect it to work the way you want. If you want something to change, you have to kindly convince a developer that your needs are their needs OR you need to learn to do it yourself. I have yet to run into a situation where OpenBSD hasn't met or exceeded my needs - not because OpenBSD is my end-all, be-all, but because I use it for what I feel it is best able to do (for me, routing, firewalling, web hosting and email hosting). Could I use it as a desktop/workstation machine? Sure, but I'd have to give up all of the media applications I've come to enjoy using on my Mac. So, I do the pragmatic thing: sell my soul for the desktop and keep my soul on the server. To be honest, I'd live fine if my desktop/workstation were taken away from me - I'd be pissed, but I would live. My servers are another story. They just have to work. Most of the requests I see from the individuals who die a fireball death are those of mememememe and you must do as I say. Bull. They don't and I'm glad as hell that they don't succumb to what many other projects seem to do. As humans, we desire to make people around us happy (unless we truly are sullen individuals) and this often causes us to do things that don't make sense. It really is difficult to say no or confront someone when they are wrong.
For some reason, programmers seem to rarely be told no and rarely say no to someone else who is asking for something idiotic. I don't know how else we could have ended up where I see us today - a bunch of people who will never become really good at what they do because they get away with producing claptrap and a lot of people asking software to do something that it really isn't meant to do.
My latest experience has to do with a bit of ego, a bit of naivety and I think a bit of frustrated laziness. Everyone wants to take the path of least resistance, but sometimes you can't and have to accept the fact that things don't always work the way you expect. I run a small web and email hosting service (that remained after I sold the ISP portion of Anywhere Technology) and had to deal with a programmer who neither wanted to listen to what I had to say nor provide me with trouble-shooting reports that would have cleared up any misconceptions sooner than later. I don't like it when people claim that something I manage doesn't work, but it is a fact of life. If the claim is made, however, the first thing I do is actually see if the problems are due to a bad configuration or something that happened (what? I have no idea, but I'll do my best to find it). I know in the past that I would often try to find a way out - a reason that had to do with bad instructions or bad programming or ... anything but me. What I found more often than not, though, is that if it is obvious that it works for others, there is likely something different about my setup or my procedure that is causing difficulties. Programming is not easy and it is less easy for those of us who do web work on different platforms. The person I dealt with was so quick to jump the gun and point out what they felt were problems caused by the environment I was giving them that they were completely ignoring that what they were given is what it is (so ist Programmieren) - that means, no environment is ideal and that is part of the difficulty of dealing with and developing technology. They were not having trouble with me because of something I had done, they were having trouble because my platform/environment was not behaving as they had expected. The problem compounded when rather than questions, accusations were thrown about.
This is the primary reason why I continue to spend money on running my own hosting service instead of using one of the better commodity hosters out there. It is not because I think they can't do what I am doing - or even do it better - it is that I realize that if I want to avoid having to adjust my programming style (rather, constantly watch that the program or application I am intending to use has been well tested on platform xyz), I can adjust the environment to fit the needs of my programs or applications. Therefore, while I trust others to do the job I do, I simply find it easier to do it myself to accommodate my constantly changing tastes. If you do chose to go down the road of using someone else, you give up the flexibility and are likely to spend more time doing bug tracking. The ideal environment that every programmer yearns for is simply that which they are comfortable using.
Pointing the finger at your platform provider is easy. (I like to do so with Apple all the time. The difference, I feel, is that I am criticizing a claim that they are making (and not fulfilling) and not the platform in particular.) It lets you off the hook from a lot of frustration and a lot of hard work. It doesn't make you a better programmer, though. It certainly won't make you successful over the long run either. If there is one important lesson I have learned from my dad it is to know thyself, know thy environment and accept it or be lazy and call it quits. The more quickly you accept that you can only change those things over which you have direct control, the more likely you will be able to finish what you are doing and move on to the next project. Successful people appear to either change and mold their environment directly or deal with the tools they were given in such a way that they find success even with what others would give up on. We are our own worst enemies, right?

Reading a post by Allen Searls (Doc's son, I assume) about the idea that the Desktop (i.e. your main screen after logging in or booting up your machine) is slowly being replaced or supplanted by the browser is not a new one (no criticism, just a thought). I was praying like mad this would happen back when PointCast (the link does not lead to the original, push news and content company I remember from 1996) brought out their push content client in 1995/6 (I can't remember exactly when it was but I do remember playing with it when working at Hillsdale College). I was excited because the PointCast service could be integrated with Microsoft's (then) new ActiveDesktop concept. The Desktop was not a static image, but a multimedia, ever changing landscape of information, etc.
The problem related to an active or ever changing Desktop is practical(ity), however. I think many people treat the Desktop on their computers just like they treat their wooden/glass/steel Desktop in their offices or homes (or school, etc). While interesting at first, it eventually becomes a distraction that we want to remove (or we go crazy not realizing what it is that is forcing ADD upon us). Think about it this way: what if your Desktop was replaced by your plasma or LCD display? Do you really want a constantly changing stream of content in a place where most of us would like some amount of consistency and calm? If so many of us did want the constant bombardment of new information (news, email, etc), then why would a program like WriteRoom be popular (perhaps it's not a shooting star product, but it has gotten its share of good reviews and commentary along the lines of, wow, that is a great idea!).
The main problem, however, is reliability. What killed PointCast for me (besides the company's apparent lack of ability when it came to creating bug free software) was the fact that when it failed, it failed miserably. Most of the time, failure involved locking up my machine and forcing a reboot. Other times, it failed in gathering content even though my connection to the net was wide open. I think of how often I travel. I depend on consistency with the machines I take with me. Because the internet is not ubiquitous - especially for anyone trying to watch what they spend - it becomes even more problematic because if I come to rely on a system, and in this case, it is a system of information delivery, what happens when the plug or "wire" to that system is pulled and I can't access the content? I lose the functionality that I've come to rely upon. This is a function of availability and reliability - e.g. can I rely on getting the content I want wherever?
I must agree that the browser is becoming a more and more powerful tool in how we create and communicate. It is a major part of the Desktop as we use it today. I would argue, though, that the same was true in 1993, when I first signed up for Prodigy. The browser was always getting more powerful and it always will, but standalone programs still seem to have the best chance at over-all success because of their stability - hence, their reliability.

via Wondiring: Is the browser the new Desktop?

Is there anyone else out there who loathes digg.com as much as me? I've found that as time has gone on, the content on digg is getting not only worse, but more and more skewed from one political viewpoint or philosophy to another (and I really mean one or the other because it has gone both directions). I frankly don't care for a site that has Britney Spear's bare ass as a front page topic next to dogmatic political spew about 'pubs versus dems' or how we're scorching the environment. My admiration for the founders of digg (ahem, Kevin Rose, et al) is great, indeed, but their product has lost its edge as time has passed. Not only do the stories on digg get recycled ad nauseam, you never really know whether there is any validity to the content or not. I really have a hard time keeping digg around when my rss list is close to breaking the hundred feed barrier and yet one of the chosen ones is not only unreliable, but slightly boring.

thought provoked via Daring Fireball Linked List: Valleywag: Three Reasons Why Digg Gets Its Numbers Wrong

A few weeks ago, I wrote about my disdain for digg.com (I won't reiterate, since it is likely to show up as the last post before this one). Steph and I are "across the pond" for the next two weeks and I downloaded a ton of podcasts for amusement's sake on the plane and in the train. One set of which was the video podcasts of diggnation. At 17 hrs into our trip (we're still in transit to Hamburg), I'm thanking the lucky stars for having brought diggnation with. The podcast is one of the most amusing out there and watching Alex and Kevin drinking and interjecting true editorial (what the hell am I saying, the whole podcast is editorial...) into the week's most popular digg stories is fun. While I still haven't changed my mind about digg.com (perhaps it simply doesn't fit my mode of reading), I was reminded of why I even went to digg.com in the first place - via the diggnation podcast.

I have really grown to enjoy the service (i.e. Twitter) - not because I like to use it for messaging, but more for the fact (as stated in another post) that I am able to make shorter postings that really are in a no-man's land between blogging and ... nothing. The one problem that has consistently prevented me from using it to the extent that I would like (especially when taking notes for c.ogi.to essays), is that posting can be dreadfully slow. I realize, and so do many users, that Twitter is experiencing a huge growth spurt that is taxing its servers (and apparently its ability to scale was not known in the beginning - my speculation), but it still causes trouble for those who would really like to use it as a tool. I find that if I am in the mode of tweeting a lot, I can't get the service to keep up with me. I've been thinking of turning it off for the time being and relying on another method of note-taking, but I still can't find what and how. I need/want something to which I can make posts using SMS and plugins to Firefox (or Safari) and those are tall orders to fill. I also have difficulties with the 140 character limits, but at the same time, it has forced me to re-think what I am writing, which is a good thing at times - it forces me to write concisely. With all of the niche needs that Twitter is able to handle for my usage, it is hard to find or come up with a replacement solution and therein lies Twitter's power. I agree with many that the uses of Twitter can be ridiculously superfluous, but so are weblogs (for the most part) and yet the cream of the crop tend to take the power of the tool and rise above the average junk. I think the same will happen with Twitter - or continue happening. I just hope they resolve the current issues pretty quickly or the tool is going to be more difficult to use than it is worth.

Technorati Tags: twitter, random, technology

I definitely should not be commended on 'doing things right the first time.' As my good friend Russ says, "we always seem to have time to do it twice, but never to do it right once."

I received a call from a colleague a few days ago about a meeting coming up over Thanksgiving. In the process of talking about said meeting, we drifted off onto other subjects relating to some decisions our county board is going to be making. One of the issues that will be coming up is whether or not the county (Walworth County, WI) should refund a development project that is nothing more than paying consultants to tell the county how to subsidize businesses they feel are the key to the long term growth in our county. The presentation that was given yesterday at Gateway College makes the following statements:
- We are living in a rapidly changing economy where industries are coming into existence which a) never existed ten years ago and b) are being valued at higher numbers than companies with greater physical assets and who have been in existence longer.
- Market driven forces have been the foundation of said changes.
Yet, in the same breath, the presentation makes the claim that local and state governments should be involved in fostering growth by:
- Researching and predicting the future industries that will bring the greatest benefit to the area being served - e.g. Walworth County.
- Provide incentives for said industries.
I argue that businesses like Google, Apple, Yahoo!, and Microsoft exist despite government interference and not because of it. Google's phenomenal growth is due to dollars and eyeballs. They built a platform on which people would be drawn to their service - i.e. search engine/search results - and in the process presented with ads that generate revenue to support further developing their search techniques. Apple has gone from a perceived second rate, second tier software and hardware developer to a class A developer of equipment, software, and ideas. Their brand is recognized on the level of a fashion icon in an industry known for beige box, bland hardware. No one could argue in any intelligent manner that the government was responsible for helping foster the growth of these two winners. There are basic infrastructure services that we have allowed the government to assume responsibility for that have helped in the growth of the companies, but I would argue that inconsistencies in policy and regulatory burden burn more human creative energy at both companies than is necessary. It is despite government that these companies exist, not because of government.
The propaganda being thrown about in Walwroth County via the new WCEDA initiative is akin to socialist market planning. If you remove subject identity indicators from their reports, you find that the goal is to research historical changes in the county and use those statistics, coupled with information on industries that have shown to be high-growth and high-paying, and mash them together to create a plan for the future. What? Historical statistics have done nothing more than show that the market changes much faster than any government could possibly react. Yet, somehow we are going to delude ourselves into believing that the government can foster growth by predicting the winners? Nonsense. The way government can assist in fostering growth is by making the rules of the game simple and easy to read. In order to enter the business market, you mustn't be required to hire lawyers and consultants to found your business. Company XYZ shouldn't be given advantages over Company ABC because they are perceived to be more vital to the growth of the County. The market will determine which provides greater benefit to the area residents and prosperity will follow. It always does. What makes us in Walworth County think that we can divine otherwise?

I didn't pre-order Leopard (aka Mac OS X 10.5) like I have with every other OS X release since 10.2. Do I feel like I need to rush off to the nearest store to do so? No. Do I want a bunch of goodies offered with the new version of OS X? Absolutely. My life won't be complete until I get my hands on the new Finder functions, improved AppleScript and Automator functions, and Mail improvements. (Apple Mail is a program I love to hate. I love it because of how searchable the "database" of email I have collected is. I hate it because on my MacBook, it loves to hang from time to time when I come out of suspend mode. Plus, for some reason - and I can't explain this in a scientific and well thought out manner - it flakes out with IMAP accounts and my process usage goes to over 100% until I quit Mail and restart it.)
My current situation is proof that I'm getting older and finally am less inclined to obsess over new technology. It feels good. Unfortunately, I can't seem to apply this same patience with everything I become obsessed with (ahem, photography, etc.). Maybe with more time...

One of the struggles I'm having with managing my photos - i.e. taking photos and displaying them the way my mind intends to see them - is providing the viewer the type of detail I see on my screen when I look at the photo. For example, I'm viewing the photo here:
The problem is that you see this picture as a thumbnail on the screen and may or may not go to flickr to view it in one of the six modes available. I'm looking at it on a 24“ monitor in all its glory (and if you are a mechanic buff of any type, you realize how amazing some of these old workhorse tractors are considering the use and abuse they have seen). This photo really doesn't evoke much emotion in the 3x2 cm square I'm currently viewing. Blow it up and it takes on a whole new meaning. I recently changed the layout of my flickr page to show larger versions of the pictures automatically, but they still aren't in the format in which I see them. This one, too,
is much better as a larger version. Ode's eye is relatively sharp and it looks like he's concentrating on something (not that I know or believe that animals concentrate on things like humans). Without seeing the image in the right setting, it is hard to get across the emotions I want you to feel as the viewer.
Flickr is the greatest photo tool currently available. It has an ”extensible“ API that allows developers to make plugins for programs like Aperture or iPhoto and subsequently, makes it easy for people like me to check in, modify, and upload our photos with little hassle. The problem is that I can't tell it to display photos the way I want you to see them. I don't mean that I want to control what file size you have access to, but I would like to control the background and how they are displayed initially. I'm not trying to set down a complaint here. I'm trying to explain how hard it is for us to really convey a point or statement without controlling the context in which something is seen. And isn't context everything?*

*No, really... I don't know and now am wondering...

It's quiet all through the house, not a creature is stirring, not even a mouse... I had to take a picture of a Sirah I'm enjoying on so many levels. I have about 20 minutes worth of homework left for the evening and I'm hoping tonight will be one of those nights where I actually sleep when my head hits the pillow.
Today has been one of those days where I had meant to accomplish so much, yet achieved so little. I spend far more time on understanding MovableType 4.x and fastcgi than I wish to admit. (I do feel better about the server configurations we have in place, but there is still much to learn.)
I also still owe this little weblog of mine an update on my philosophical battles with thoughts on Walworth County funding private operations like WCEDA. I noticed a piece in the Janesville Gazette Xtra from Mr. Burkhardt about the necessity of WCEDA in providing the County with planning guidance so that we can enjoy the benefits of bringing more tax revenue our way. Tomorrow, I'll tackle that issue with some more direct comments, but for now, I am still stunned that people believe in economic planning. There are plenty of fancy arguments for government creating zones for economic development, etc. None, however, are more powerful than an easy to read legal guide to a given municipality and low taxes. Only big business seems to be interested in games and tax dodge schemes. The small guys - i.e. those like us or to be more specific, between $50,000-$200mil per year in revenues (perhaps that top number should be higher) - prefer rules they can know and that they will generally be left to go about doing their business as they see fit. If we provide to the market we intend to serve in an efficient and responsible manner, business will come and our revenues will grow (positive revenues, not just money for the sake of making more, but more profits, etc.). There is no honest person out there who would argue otherwise.
Planning means that a person expects to forecast the future. No bureaucratic body has ever succeeded in doing so for any amount of time. History appears to be ignored again. By the way, ad hoc development is what an efficient market is about. Ad hoc means to concentrate on a specific mission and good businesses typically find ways of doing just that.
Back to work so I can go off to bed.

I've been mulling how to explain my thoughts on an observation that has become more and more clear over the past few years. I avoid televised news whenever possible. The closest I get to watching the news on broadcast television or cable news networks is when there is something specific that is happening right now that I can't find videos of on the net. Otherwise, whether it is NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, CNN, etc. I always get the feeling that the reporting staff is talking down to me and has an agenda they just can't refuse to push upon me.
In the reporting about weather trends, specifically what has been coined as global warming, I am shocked by the blatant disregard for facts. I know. There are lies, damn lies and then statistics (I guess, a sort of fact). Context is irrelevant and facts are what you make of them. The earth is warming and it is due to humans - so we are told to believe. We know that the earth was extremely cold some ten to thirty millennia ago. In order for the polar caps and glaciers to have receded, it must have gotten warmer. This was all without modern human industry. It happened because that was the process nature was going through at the time. Some attribute it to God, others to pure geological evolution and natural event. Either way, man had no control over it and those that were alive at the time were probably hopping up and down doing some sort of rain dance because they had to believe there was a magical force that they could influence through their miniscule and likely irrelevant actions.
Regardless about how you feel about the climate (e.g. pro or contra global warming theory), it is amazing seeing humanity search for the next great religion. When facts are ignored and we succumb to dogma because it just might be true, we are talking about a sort of religion. (I am not attacking religion nor theology and a search for greater meaning in life. I am attacking dogma that amounts to statements that are not open to debate. Religion has this, normal human action is wrought with this, and science is especially prone to this, even though your average scientist claims it is not.) Statistics have been presented on both sides of the argument and, for what appears to be emotional reasons, not logical ones, we have generally taken on the crusade of one side of the debate.
Out with Christianity (or organized religion) and in with dogmatic science. Suddenly our society seems obsessed with what everyone else is doing and not with what they are doing themselves to better their lives and their surroundings. When the news spends 80% of its airtime on images from the paparazzi, how can we claim to be interested in generic information - i.e. knowledge - so that we can make relatively informed decisions? We can't. This obsession must have something to do with the emptiness in our own personal lives. I can't think of any other reason why anyone would spend a majority of their valuable time reading about whether Britney Spears has shaved her head or how bombed she got last night. We are concerned with what others are doing instead of making sure that we are being responsible with our own lives. Couple this voyeurism with the need for a cause and you find topics like global warming at the forefront of every conversation - conversations devoid of depth and devoid of substantial statistics bearing knowledge.
I wonder if I feel like Copernicus or Descartes must have; mind overflowing with pure data about the world around them, yet a refusal of the status quo to accept that there was more to the world than they were being led to believe. I'm not placing myself anywhere near either of the above gentlemen in terms of their sheer genius. I am only making the comparison in terms of their (likely) amazement that people would rather be fed with ideas they can believe without critique, than challenged with thoughts that said not only are we not in control, but nature is much greater than we can possibly fathom. We are yet a speck of sand on a vast ocean of beach and the impact we have on our surroundings is less than what we wish it were. We wish we were powerful and we constantly search for means by which to gain this power - whether religion or science - and we continually fantasize about how powerful we'll be if we only do this or that in a certain specific manner. We cannot accept that we are part of a larger game that cares as much about our actions as a river does a pebble being thrown into the rapids.
How frustrating it must have been to have seen and learned that we know so little and yet are convinced of our power out of sheer arrogance and perhaps, hope.