Betcha didn't know
its Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day 2005!
Jim on 01.31.05 @ 12:11 PM PST [link]
Sex, Drugs & Unix
Monday, January 31st
Friday, January 28th
Dick Joke(s) 'O the Day
Does my bologna have a first name in order to better communicate with the other cold cuts in the refrigerator? So far, the only other meat I am aware of that has a first name is Frank. --Carolyn Mansager
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A Slovak man trapped in his car under an avalanche freed himself by drinking 60 bottles of beer and urinating on the snow to melt it.
Rescue teams found Richard Kral drunk and staggering along a mountain path four days after his Audi car was buried in the Slovak Tatra mountains.
He told them that after the avalanche, he had opened his car window and tried to dig his way out.
But as he dug with his hands, he realised the snow would fill his car before he managed to break through.
He had 60 half-litre bottles of beer in his car as he was going on holiday, and after cracking one open to think about the problem he realised he could urinate on the snow to melt it, local media reported.
He said: "I was scooping the snow from above me and packing it down below the window, and then I peed on it to melt it. It was hard and now my kidneys and liver hurt. But I'm glad the beer I took on holiday turned out to be useful and I managed to get out of there."
Parts of Europe have this week been hit by the heaviest snowfalls since 1941, with some places registering more than ten feet of snow in 24 hours. link
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I was well on my way toward fame and fortune until those tight-asses at the Guinness Book stomped on my dream. Now what am I supposed to do with this enema bag and all these jars of marshmallow topping?
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Given the likely reaction to an increase in terror-alert level to "severe threat imminent," wouldn't a more appropriate alert color be brown? --Brad Simanek
Jim on 01.28.05 @ 03:49 PM PST [link]
Saturday, January 22nd
Your Tax Dollars @ Work
You'd think we had seen the pinnacle of Dr. Strangelove-style military schemes with the 1957 British plan for a seven-ton plutonium land mine kept warm and operative by a flock of chickens. But noooo. To go totally off the deep end, you need the brain trust of superpower. In 1994, officials of the Pentagon seriously considered a proposal to develop a chemical agent that would inspire homosexual urges in enemy troops. Declassified documents recently released to The Sunshine Project under the Freedom of Information Act, contain a proposal from a laboratory at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio for funding of non-lethal "Harassing, Annoying, and 'Bad Guy' Identifying Chemicals." "One distasteful but completely non-lethal example would be strong aphrodisiacs, especially if the chemical also caused homosexual behavior," reads the document, which proposes a number of other "non-lethal" chemical weapons, among them one that would inflict "severe and lasting halitosis" in enemy combatants. Now, the Pentagon has confirmed that these were real proposals, but insists that they was dismissed out of hand. "It was not taken seriously," Marine Capt. Daniel McSweeney told the Boston Herald. "It was not considered for further development." McSweeney's assertion would be reassuring if true. But sadly it's not. The plan received further consideration as recently as 2001, when it was submitted to the National Academies of Science, the nation's pre-eminent scientific advisory organization, for review.
From Good Morning, Silicon Valley
Jim on 01.22.05 @ 08:16 PM PST [link]
Paul Graham on High School
Paul's newest is out, What You'll Wish You'd Known. It concludes:
Your teachers are always telling you to behave like adults. I wonder if they'd like it if you did. You may be loud and disorganized, but you're very docile compared to adults. If you actually started acting like adults, it would be just as if a bunch of adults had been transposed into your bodies. Imagine the reaction of an FBI agent or taxi driver or reporter to being told they had to ask permission to go the bathroom, and only one person could go at a time. To say nothing of the things you're taught. If a bunch of actual adults suddenly found themselves trapped in high school, the first thing they'd do is form a union and renegotiate all the rules with the administration.
Jim on 01.22.05 @ 08:11 AM PST [link]
Apple's HD plans?
Cringley has gone off the deep-end. Again.
Blue-Ray encodes 1080i (and its barely HD there) at 10-30Mbps onto a 27GB disc. Lets assume that Apple chooses to lock the encoder at 10Mbps for a 1080i image at "OK" quality. That means that most households with broadband will only be able to download at 20% of real-time speed, if they get 2Mbps out of their connection. Your two hour movie will saturate the modem for 10 hours in order for you to get a 2 hour movie.
Maybe Apple will downshift to 6.6Mbps for a 720p picture. More HDTVs can deal with this format. Here we're only spending approximately 3X real-time to download the clip. Of course, if its Pixar content, that will compress like a motherfucker. Maybe that will work.
Cringley is hardly original. Here is a story posted in early December by Jonathan Green.
Or here, here, or, if you want a real blow-by-blow review of Apple and H.264, check out this post at Drunken Blog.
I love the following bit from this Jobs interview with Business Week:
People always ask me why did Apple really fail for those years, and it's easy to blame it on certain people or personalities. Certainly, there was some of that. But there's a far more insightful way to think about it. Apple had a monopoly on the graphical user interface for almost 10 years. That's a long time. And how are monopolies lost? Think about it. Some very good product people invent some very good products, and the company achieves a monopoly.
But after that, the product people aren't the ones that drive the company forward anymore. It's the marketing guys or the ones who expand the business into Latin America or whatever. Because what's the point of focusing on making the product even better when the only company you can take business from is yourself?
So a different group of people start to move up. And who usually ends up running the show? The sales guy. John Akers at IBM (IBM ) is the consummate example. Then one day, the monopoly expires for whatever reason. But by then the best product people have left, or they're no longer listened to. And so the company goes through this tumultuous time, and it either survives or it doesn't.
Q: Is this common in the industry?
A: Look at Microsoft (MSFT ) -- who's running Microsoft?
Q: Steve Ballmer.
A: Right, the sales guy. Case closed. And that's what happened at Apple, as well.
When you put a salespuke or "operations" idiot in-charge of a technology company, you get total, abject failure. Examples abound.
And, BTW, this piece, (also from drunkenbatman), was quite precient.
That's why they're so freaked out about what RealNetworks is doing, even though it'd sell iPods. At the end of the day it's not going to be about who is selling what end-play device, it's going to be about who is sitting in the middle. And Apple wants to be that benevolent dictator, parsing DRM-protected content to whatever device you're using at the time. It's also why the deal with Motorola is so significant; Apple can live without you buying an iPod, but if you're going to be buying DRM-protected content, Apple damn sure wants it to be through them.
Jim on 01.22.05 @ 07:10 AM PST [link]
Spokane, now better than Fort Wayne, IN!
Men's Health, in its most recent issue, ranked 101 top cities in terms of, among other things, the percentage of resident college grads, SAT scores and the number of universities. They say Spokane isn't the dumbest apple in the bucket — that honor goes to Fort Wayne, Ind., home of former VP Dan Quayle — but with Spokane in 32nd place, they see room for improvement.
Talk about damning with faint praise.
Honolulu took 7th. Austin took 4th. I'm here to tell you that either is far and away better than anything that Spokane, WA has to offer. Hell, even Las Vegas is ranked above "SPO", though barely. And as a reminder, Las Vegas has recently been described as, "a pathological hypertrophic suburbanoid anomaly in the middle of a desert wasteland, analogous to a deadly tumor growing in a remote part of a person's body, say the colon." James is well-acquainted with Spokane, "Morocco is about as far away from Israel as Spokane is from Wall Street. "
Hell, Spokane can't even get drinking water right. Spokane was also ranked highly "toxic". No really, its fucking deadly. And recently its gotten even worse. In Spokane, its drink shit and die!, because not only are you drinking water, sewage, PCBs, lead, arsenic, zinc, and cadmium, and now with diesel fuel! (and 200,000 gallons of shit).
And speaking of water, you'll be arrested if you get too close to the Spokane River and you're holding a life jacket. (Jesus, with all that shit in the water, you're either dead anyway, or you'll be walking on he water.)
Citation: Listing 10.19.010 Swimming in River.
A. No person may intentionally enter, swim, dive, or float, with or without a boat, raft, craft, or other flotation device, in or upon the water of the Spokane River at any point between the east line of the Division Street bridge and the west line of the Monroe Street Bridge.
[...]
C. The fact that a person is wearing or in possession of swimming, diving, or flotation gear or equipment on the bank of the river in the prohibited portion is sufficient ground for an arrest for attempt under this section and shall be prima facie evidence of intent.
(Ord. C-29692)
Want to understand Spokane? Read this. This could describe the miindset of a large majority of the citizenry.
Its now been 30 years since the wave crested around Expo 74. People there continue to wistfully hope for some new economic miracle to pull them out of the pit.. Seattle got Microsoft, and Boeing, and 10,000 other things, while Spokane is caught in the swirling toilet water. Spokane has been ranked quite low for "business climate", (Austin was #1), as reported by our friend, Tom Sowa. But hey, its "climbing", and you can always play 'kick the can' with your neighbor, even if he is a registered sex offender. Why are you home kicking the can? You're likely unemployed. Spokane admits to a greater than 5% unemployment rate. (see also).
Ah Spokane, where the cops have abandoned the doughnut shop, and can be found at the local strip joint, ruler in-hand. Apparently the cops in Spokane don't have any meth labs to bust, or psychopaths tocatch.
Robert Lee Yates, jr. killed 16 prostitutes, then fucked their lifeless bodies, all in Spokane. He was an Army Reserver Helicopter Pilot, and Spokane native. Martin Lee Sanders, a long-haul trucker from Spokane, raped and killed four teenagers. Stanley Bernson, a produce salesman from Spokane, suspected of killing thirty women, including a 15-year-old girl.
Washington State is nearly famous for its list of famous serial kilers(PDF), or here, like Ted Bundy. Imagine living with a constany supply of Jack-the-Ripper wannabes.
Spokane is, quite simply, too many white, uptight, racist Catholics, in a low-brow, shit-stained, crime-ridden town.
Jim on 01.22.05 @ 05:09 AM PST [link]
Friday, January 21st
Back on Mac
Got my 12" Powerbook back from AppleCare. Some chuf @ Flextronic sent me a note telling me not only that my "non-Apple" (Kingston) memory was incompatble with my "iBook" (I don't own one), but added that the memory caused the problem, and recommended that I not re-install my 1GB SO-DIMM. Feh, we both know that they replaced the disk drive (and IDE cable), because there was problem with the drive. Nice one, asshole.
Spent 5 hours last night rebuilding things:
First you run the "Software Updater, watch it download over 200MB of stuff. Twice, because the damn thing crashed half-way though the install the first time. Then the real fun began:
Update the Bluetooth firmware: check
Quicksilver: check
Fugu: check
SSHKeychain: check
Xcode 1.5 (also a large download): check
Carbon Emacs: check
OpenMCL: check
SLIME: check
Attached the iPod and ran iSync, *poof* went one of my two backup copies of AddressBook. Turns out that iSync just blindly copies things to the iPod, presumably because the iPod doesn't have a way to change any of the data that iSync will manage. This is just lazy programming, Apple.
Fortunately, my cell phone also had a copy of data, and after pairing the phone, iSync managed to do the "Right Thing" (tm) and I have the contents of Addressbook back.
Setup Mail.app (and then wait for the folders to sync), and finally gave iChat my account details. After all that, I sat down and watched the Keynote from MacWorld, over a week after it happened.
Unfortunately, the only copy of the songs I've purchased from ITMS live on my iPod now. ITMS won't let you re-download these. Thats also a bad move on Apple's part.
Jim on 01.21.05 @ 10:58 AM PST [link]
Wednesday, January 19th
Spokane's hotspot... not
So WTF is going on in Spokane with wireless these days? Seems like free is winning, even in the land that time forgot.
SPOKANE, WA December 27, 2004 - Wind Wireless, Inc. of Spokane, Washington announced the completion of their latest project, a free access wireless internet system that encompasses over 2,200 square miles. Often called WiFi Hotspots, these Internet access systems are often found at airports and coffee houses, allowing people with small radio cards in portable computers to use the Internet. The city of Spokane has been getting a lot of press coverage for a ten by ten block hotspot it built at a cost of $75,000. The Wind Wireless system uses Mikrotik equipment and the company spent under $30,000. The Wind system is capable of delivering speeds up to 4 megabits per second. [...] link
Need I explain how all of those APs from WindWireless are going to completely constipate the Vivato geat?
Update Feb 5. Apparently they're using the Securawave antennas that I mentioned back in August.
Jim on 01.19.05 @ 04:54 AM PST [link]
Wednesday, January 12th
Spokane is bad, Tacoma and Vancouver are worse
Tom Sowa wrote in with a bit more data. He forwarded an email from someone at the Washington State Patrol, Criminal Records Division that included a total # of all registered sex offenders, by county. Note that this includes classes I-III. I've asked for a break-down by class, per county.
Tom pointed out that, "12 percent of all WA sex offenders are living in Spokane County." First, his math is wrong, its only 7.77%. 1434 registered (all classes) out of a state-wide total of 18450. Second, he doesn't mention that Spokane county only has 7.03% of the total state population.
Anyway, it turns out that Spokane is only #3 in terms of your likelyhood to be rubbing elbows (or other body parts) with someone the state has decided to track. Pierce county is potentially slightly worse. Pierce county has 17% more registered sex offenders per capita than Spokane county, but its population is 81% more dense (persons per square mile). Clark county is much worse. Though it has slightly less than 90% of Spokane county's population, it has twice the number of registered sex offenders in a bit less than 1/3 of the geography. Maybe its Portland, OR's fault.
So, all in all, don't move to Tacoma, or Vancouver WA, either.
I'm still interested to see that breakdown by classification.
Jim on 01.12.05 @ 12:11 PM PST [link]
T-Mobile: Get Hacked!
A sophisticated computer hacker had access to servers at wireless giant T-Mobile for at least a year, which he used to monitor U.S. Secret Service e-mail, obtain customers' passwords and Social Security numbers, and download candid photos taken by Sidekick users, including Hollywood celebrities, SecurityFocus has learned. [via Interesting People]
Also Windows source code: $20.00
Jim on 01.12.05 @ 02:59 AM PST [link]
Monday, January 10th
Asimov's Laws come to Japan
From: Rod Van Meter <rdv@tera.ics">rdv@tera.ics.keio.ac.jp>
Reply-To: <rdv@tera.ics">rdv@tera.ics.keio.ac.jp>
Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2005 19:48:25 +0900
To: David Farber <dave@farber.net">dave@farber.net>
Subject: Asimov's Laws come to Japan
I've been meaning to write up a note about humanoid robots in Japan,
and hadn't gotten around to it, but an article in today's Yomiuri
Shinbun (in Japanese; I couldn't find an English version) prompted me.
Japan is facing a serious manpower shortage over the next generation,
with a birth rate of less than 1.3 children per woman (in Tokyo, it's
0.9987!). Rural areas are already emptying out, as people flow into
the cities. So, Japan will need lots of labor, for its
labor-intensive farming system and to care for its graying population.
There are only three choices: 1) increase the birth rate, 2) import
labor, or 3) build laborers. Personally, I'm betting that xenophobia
and ingenuity together win the day, and that humanoid robots will
become common.
Jim on 01.10.05 @ 04:03 AM PST [more..]
Saturday, January 8th
HTML O' the Day
What do you believe that you cannot prove? [Hit the "next" link at the top of this page to get to the list.]
He said he had "no doubt" that other commentators had similar ethical
dilemmas that simply hadn't been publicized.
Just a little of that good old-fashioned John Jacob Jingleheimer
Schmidt. [Possibly offensive: AC]
I'm so nervous I'm never gonna get invited back.
That means someone is playing a joke, I think," Brown said.
Amazon.com: It's not just for books anymore. [Possibly offensive: AC]
Get your facts straight.
All that's left for us to do is to ask for forgiveness.
Mechanised sorting should be particularly useful when a would-be
father is older, or is a heavy smoker or has been exposed to
pollution in the workplace -- all factors that increase this type
of DNA damage.
Jim on 01.08.05 @ 07:17 AM PST [link]
Friday, January 7th
Discovered::Jared Tarbell
I believe all code is dead unless executing within the computer. For this reason I distribute the source code of my programs in modifiable form to encourage life and spread love. Opening one's code is a beneficial practice for both the programmer and the community. I appreciate modifications and extensions of these algorithms. Please send me your experiences.
link
Jim on 01.07.05 @ 03:23 AM PST [link]
Thursday, January 6th
Vivato's management claims
Says here At the core of Vivato is a skilled and experienced executive team comprised of veterans of successful companies: Xircom, AirTouch/Vodafone, Hewlett Packard, Agilent, Texas Instruments, Intel, Aironet and Alcatel integrating the disciplines of local area networks, high performance packet switching, wireless wide area network deployment, RF and antenna design as well as IC design.
Lets check:
Xircom: Nope. (Biba, Belanger)
Airtouch/Vodaphone: The site claims Raj, but Raj has left the building
Aironet: Nope. (Belanger)
HP/Agilent: Nobody listed on the page, but Crilly counts, I suppose.
Texas Instruments: I see no evidence.
Intel: I don't see it. Siavash Alamouti (once CTO at Vivato) went to Intel after Vivato.
Alcatel: Our friend, Don.
What isn't mentioned is the very strong Ex-Proxim contingent at Vivato these days. Not only is Brad Kolb ex-Proxim, but Art Coleman, who is now "VP of Engineering" is also (directly) from Proxim, and brought with him a staff of fellow Proxim software refugees (internally referred to as 'the hotels', because one of them is named "Hilton Hong"), who are all located in the San Mateo office, with Art, and everyone else on the management team, save DeMarche, who lives in Colorado.
Proxim's stock doesn't do that well.
Proxim was the last of the big WLAN vendors to come around to Wi-Fi (802.11b). In fact, the company launched a vicious patent infringement suit against nearly everyone in Wi-Fi (including Wayport), in early 2001, only to be crushed in response by the combined weight of Cisco (via their Aironet acquisition), Agilent (nee: Lucent) and Intersil. When Proxim started to go into freefall, these who could find a parachute got off the plane.
Jim on 01.06.05 @ 11:42 PM PST [link]
(Successful-lisp-p?)
Two days ago I reported that my order for "Successful LISP" was MIA. The book arrived today via USPS Priority Mail. (The one from Booksurge, not the second on that Markus Fix ordered for me.)
There is no indication of when it was sent. (Its postmarked Charleston, SC, but there is no date on the postmark.) I tried entering the tracking number, but the USPS site comes up blank.
I never heard anything from Booksurge, either.
Jim on 01.06.05 @ 10:11 PM PST [link]
Spokane Sex Offenders, redux
A couple days ago I wrote "Kid-friendly? Not when most of Washington state's registered sex offenders live in Spokane." This seems to have raised a few hackles. I guess its not a nice feeling to have someone say that you live in a town that attracts the type of people who do violence against children. Tom Sowa, from the Spokane newspaper, wrote in. I'll just quote in-full:
Hi Jim
I could have a good part time job running down the misinformation you're spewing on SDU.
Don't care how long you rant about Vivato, go ahead if it makes you happy. But you're off base a ton on the sex offenders statement you posted recently. Love to see if you're willing to fess up the error.
Go to the above link [ed: note that I've put the link in-line here.] and do an offenders search for a downtown Spokane address, running 15 miles in any radius. When I did I got 152 names within Spokane, for all level offenders. Is this a good number? Probalby not dead on but good enough for purposes here.
Then do the same with King County, which is seven times roughly the size of Spokane County. You'll get something like 210 offenders of all types.
I didn't even bother with the other metros like Tacoma, Yakima, Wenatchee or the Tri-Cities. Whatever that number, it probably comes to at least another 120 offenders.
What does that say about the majority of the state's sex offenders? I'd say the majority are not in Spokane County.
I'm going the extra mile, because I know you're busy with your day job, and making sure I get the full statistical county profile from the state DOC people. I'll gladly share them with you.
So go ahead and do your rant, but get the facts right, can you??
We'll just use Tom's numbers here. Note carefully that while he regards the report as "all levels", in reality that site only returns level II and level III offenders. The dangerous kinds. We'll return to this is a bit.
According to the US Census King County's 2003 population is estimated at 1,761,411 while Spokane County's estimated 2003 population is 431,027.
Normalizing, in Spokane 352 out of every million residents are registered sex offenders, while in King County only 119 of every million residents are registered sex offenders. One way of restating this is that if you live in Spokane, one of your neighbors, perhaps the person you see at the playground when you take your kids there, and indeed, anyone you meet is 300% as likely to be a registered sex offender, whom the state has decided has a high probability of doing it again, compared to those you'll meet walking around Seattle.
Lets look at it another way, those same US Census links will show that Spokane county has an area of 1,764 square miles, and that the 2000 density was 237 persons per square mile, while King County is an are of 2,126 square miles (hardly 7X, Tom) and a (2000) density of 817 persons per square mile. Now, if we do a little math (again using Tom's numbers) you'll see that the density of sex offenders in Spokane County is 11.6 per square mile, while in King County its 10.1. Here, the *density* of sex offenders *per square mile* is over 14% higher in Spokane County than King County.
Yes Tom, I admit my error. Numerically the rest of Washington has more registered sex offenders. But in Spokane you are *much* more likely to rub up against one, and only one of you will enjoy it.
Now lets look at growth of this class of your local population, Spokane. On the Spokane Police Offender Registration page, you'll find that in 1999, Spokane had 25 "Level II" and 47 "Level III" registered sex offenders. Using Tom's numbers (again), you now have 152 (combined). This represents a 211% increase in the last five years. Spokane's population hasn't been growing at anywhere near that rate, so the problem is, by definition, getting much worse. I allow that it is possible that registration only started in 1990, and that more people are registering with time. It is also possible that with King County's greater population density, more people are aware of the presence of someone who is subject to these registration requirements, and this induces those subject to registration to move to places like Spokane.
While I still lived there, I asked a lot of people about the apparent phenomena of Spokane's spiraling growth in registered sex offenders. The theory I was most often offered is that a person exiting the penal system in Washington State is likely to prefer Spokane because its less expensive to live there. Spokane also has vast areas where the misfortunate have taken over the neighborhood. Spokane's downtown area is a ghetto, full of individuals whom "society" would rather ignore or forget. The Spokane Police department is so awash in violent crime that property crimes are often not even investigated. I shudder to think what downtown Spokane might be like in another five years unless the citizens of Spokane manage to make the situation better. Somehow.
In other news, the Catholic Church in Spokane filed Chapter 11 in an effort to contain the financial damage of over 28 pending suits representing over 60 individuals. If you read through the Spokane Diocese site, it becomes obvious that the Bishop knows that more people have yet to come forward. The Spokesman Review thinks its fair for the Spokane Diocese to hide its assets and use the US Bankruptcy courts to shield itself from what must be an approaching tsunami of the angry and abused. There are apparently more articles in the Review, but they are hidden behind a costwall.
The Catholic Church in Seattle recently settled 12 cases for $1.8m. There are other cases, but the Seattle Diocese appears to be attempting to set a precedent of around $150k per case.
p.s. I was tempted to title this posting "Spokane Fucks Kids".
Jim on 01.06.05 @ 10:02 PM PST [link]
Wednesday, January 5th
The new book club
Russle Beattle put an idea for serializing books out Monday.
I just had an idea for a system where you could choose any one of the public domain eBooks out there and have a small chunk delivered daily via RSS. Many of us are too busy to read classic books out there, instead choosing "page turners" or books that are more applicable to our every day lives (like a some new marketing book). But we do have time to zip through our aggregator daily, right? So by taking a 500 page novel and distributing it, a few pages at a time, via RSS, we could read a new book in a month or so without even trying.
Combine this with Google Library, and perhaps some decent text-to-speech software, and a new vector of podcasting/publishing is possible.
Jim on 01.05.05 @ 07:12 PM PST [link]
Joke of the day
Two Canadians are sitting in a bar getting bored, so they decide to play twenty questions.
The first Canadian tries to think of a subject for his friend to guess and, after a little pondering, comes up with "moose cock." He tells his friend he's ready to play.
"OK," says the second Canadian. "Is it something good to eat?"
The first Canadian thinks for a moment, then laughs and replies, "Sure, I guess you could eat it."
The second Canadian says, "Is it a moose cock?"
Jim on 01.05.05 @ 06:42 PM PST [link]
Deworming the Internet
A long time ago, I hired a kid to be sysadmin at Tadpole. He actually cut his hair to get the job. (Though he received narry a hint that it would be required, or even appropriate.) His name was Douglas Barnes. He gives me no credit, though I assisted in his escape from the Brothers Jackson at IO.COM. This wasn't the only time I ended up extracting a friend from the deadly embrace of Steve and Ken.
While at Tadpole, Doug became increasingly interested in encryption technologies (Austin had its own little cypherpunks scene) and started work on a telnet that would authenticate and perform a key exchange via RSA. Someone else produced SSH, and I guess he abandoned the work, but the encryption bug had bit. Post-Tadpole, Doug went on to be president at Electric Communities, and then to co-found C2.net with Sameer Parekh. C2 got bought by RedHat in September of 2000.
Doug(las) is back in Austin now, attending UT Law, and has a blog at
Both law enforcement and markets for software standards have failed to solve the problem of software that is vulnerable to infection by network-transmitted worms. Consequently, regulatory attention should turn to the publishers of worm-vulnerable software. Although ordinary tort liability for software publishers may seem attractive, it would interact in unpredictable ways with the winner-take-all nature of competition among publishers of mass-market, internet-connected software. More tailored solutions are called for, including mandatory "bug bounties" for those who find potential vulnerabilities in software, minimum quality standards for software, and, once the underlying market failure is remedied, liability for end users who persist in using worm-vulnerable software.
Interesting stuff.
Jim on 01.05.05 @ 01:25 AM PST [link]
The "too much fun" club
So I got a "call this guy when you can" email from the sales department today. Followed by "he refuses to talk to us, only wants to talk to you." Hmm. So I called him back, at 7pm his time. He answered. Its always good to know that you've got a fellow geek on the other side of the call. :-)
Turns out this fellow (and his company) are a well-funded firm (I'm not saying where) who are attempting to use a product built by my former employer, and aren't meeting with much success. Long-time readers of this site will understand just what I think of the company's first-generation product.
Anyway, I answered a few questions that he couldn't get out of the manufacturer. Things that anyone who is going to install a "Vivato Basestation" would need to know. The customer is fed-up by the run-around he's getting.
I found myself in the unique position of nearly defending a company that I loathe. I made some suggestions that I honestly hope will assist them. They would rather return the Vivato product and buy something we recommend.
Also of interest, Don "I wish I was in the mafia" Stalter continues to raise the price on products that he can't sell. I suppose that this is the "HP Way", or perhaps he just gave in to the pressure from the formerly-of-HP contingent (including our old friend, Bob Conley) inside V-land. Vivato now (apparently) wants nearly $17,000 for one of its first-generation products.
Vivato reads this blog, several times per day. They may even have something writing the results down. I think they hoped to sue me once. They blocked my ability to send email inside the company (but failed to do so in any intelligent manner.) Stalter had people in the IT department search all of the email that was stored in the Exchange server, looking for anything they could use against me. When the search came up with nothing, (Quoth the (former) CFO, "Is this all you've got?") it was repeated.
Speaking of the (former) CFO, Raj is long-gone, (back in October) but still listed on the website. Its likely that Don and his cronies are out madly searching for anyone to invest, and not having a CFO (never mind having washed out the entire crew (save Brad Kolb) Don "hand-picked" within six months of his appointment as CEO, should send a warning flare for any potential investor.
I, and several of my fellow ex-employees await the approaching day when the doors are closed.
Jim on 01.05.05 @ 12:20 AM PST [link]
Tuesday, January 4th
Unsuccessful LISP Book
Its been 17 days (12 of these "business" days) since I ordered Successful LISP and, to date, no book. This sucks, since only days later I could have ordered it directly from the author and not only received it quicker, but paid less, or, had I waited perhaps a week, I could have ordered it from Amazon, and at least received it.
But as it stands, I go to the box everyday, seeking my fine green book, hoping to go home and mount the REPL with glee, and find only credit card bills and lingerie catalogs. So much for being able to read it on the plane during Christmas vacation (its a 5 hour flight between Hawaii and the West coast.) And so much for, "Still searching for a seasonal present for your favourite geek? Buy a copy of SL and a tshirt!" (No, I didn't order the t-shirt, was that some kind of "insider" code?)
Now I am dejected, and unlikely to order from Booksurge again.
Update [02:00 Jan 5]. Marcus Fix kindly placed a second order for the book. Says I should have it in a week. Too nice.
Jim on 01.04.05 @ 11:49 PM PST [link]
leaving one's past behind
Jamie and I went and got our Hawaii driver's licenses today. This involved filling out the application, standing in line #1, taking the vision test, standing in line #2, paying a $2 fee to take the written test, taking the written test, standing in line #2 again to pay $18 for a six-year license, standing in line #3 to get a photo and thumbprint taken, and then standing around while the government worker corrected the address on mine. Elapsed time: under 4 hours.
We tendered our Texas driver's licenses. Note that neither of us ever felt compeled to obtain a Washington State license, even though we owned property and lived there for 18 months. No reason to give the fuckwads in Spokane a dime, and I never really felt comfortable in pile of rubble that is Spokane anyway.
A long time ago, I saw the Spokane Chamber of Commerce with a booth at some random trade show. Gawd I hope they show up at one I'm attending in the future, just so I can hang around and berate them for an hour or so.
Nearly everything on Movetospokane.com is a flat-out lie.
Kid-friendly? Not when most of Washington state's registered sex offenders live in Spokane.
Largest WiFi hotzone? Hardly.
And yes, the food really sucks in Spo. I have friends who have escaped the sucking gravity of Spokane, and they're all enormously happy about it. I spoke to a lot of people in Spokane who can't escape, for some reason. Trust me, to move to Spokane is to become entombed. Don't.
Anyway, we've severed the last ties (except for one lone harrasment lawsuit) with the mainland.
Definition of the day: symmetry: (n) The difference between a Hershey's Kiss & a Hershey's Turd.
Bonus links Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues, or if you're in more of a tropical mood, half a guava
Jim on 01.04.05 @ 03:34 AM PST [link]
LISP On!
My Allegro 6.2 demo license expired, and rather than re-up for something that I am unlikely to buy, I went ahead and installed OpenMCL.
After some minor tweakage to my .emacs file, I've got SLIME back up and running.
Free Software goodness.
Next up, SBCL on the new machine in co-lo, especially since its an AMD64 machine, and SBCL grooves on AMD64 now.
Jim on 01.04.05 @ 01:17 AM PST [link]
Monday, January 3rd
Robot P0rn
You've seen LISP Porn, now gander at Robot porn -- the wave of the future. Start collecting it now so that when our cybernetic overlords take control, you have a ready supply to buy favors from them.
Jim on 01.03.05 @ 01:46 PM PST [link]
More on the Biba pose
Nearly famous for doing it: Clive Mayhew-Begg.
Other notables include Pud of FuckedCompany.
Jim on 01.03.05 @ 03:56 AM PST [link]
Smack my bitch down
Slava Pestov has a scathing review of the source code for Java's JIT engine, Hotspot, and the sun.* classes.
Java zealots love to say that Java isn't slow anymore, that Java's memory consumption is justified, etc. But the Java runtime is so badly coded that its a wonder it works at all!
Jim on 01.03.05 @ 03:15 AM PST [link]
