A Still Verdictless Life

Monday, September 30, 2002

Friday's raft trip was such fun that I think I'll try to organize a spring trip on the New River. The New is a strange bit of geology - it runs from South to North, and is one of the oldest rivers on the planet. It has great rafting - large rapids, large water volumes - in the spring. Late April or early May would be a great time to do a trip, because the Appalachians would be in full bloom with dogwood, redbud, trilliums and daffodils. Would be spectacular. comment []5:18:59 AM

Dial access problems are pretty much resolved today, though just how is not clear. Evidence points to local phone line problems on Friday and Saturday, but it's always worrisome to have digital machines exhibit analog behavior. I like closure. We've extended our stay here in KY, and why not? The weather is great, my daughter has time off, and the airlines were accomodating for once. This is a great example of the freedom you can have as an independent professional. As an employee of The Firm, I would've been dragged back to the left coast by meetings, deadlines, and guilt - the three main ingredients of corporate life. comment []5:13:36 AM

Sunday, September 29, 2002

Cringley may be back on track with this column. Down with the DCMA! comment []6:20:10 AM

It's been very cool seeing my extended family this weekend. So far I've seen one brother, two nephews, my grandmother, my dad, one aunt and her husband, and of course my immediate family. The cool part is all the extended family visiting was unplanned, serendipitous. comment []6:13:10 AM

Thanks to Matt for this post on pangrams. Learn something new every day... comment []6:05:35 AM

The Ryder Cup is on this AM. Is the best golf all year, by far. The pros actually show signs of pressure. Go USA! comment []5:39:45 AM

Added Google search to ASVL. Thanks to John Robb and Glenn Fleishman. ASVL site search doesn't work yet, but will Real Soon Now. comment []5:22:44 AM

Back online, but barely. I sit waiting for the line to drop. I may have to think of a way to start (or help) a local business that brings broadband wireless to these parts. The standard of living would rise immeasurably, IMHO. Perhaps a Mesh Networks solution? comment []5:05:09 AM

Saturday, September 28, 2002

This is bad - I'm having connection withdrawl. Have determined that the problem seems to be my local phone lines. Something has happened since I was here last to make my connection quality virtually nil. I can make a connection to an ISP, but can't hold it for more than a minute or so. I've gone from broadband to no man's land. comment []6:41:38 AM

Yesterday was good for the soul. Tough on the body, but good for the soul. I spent the day on the upper Gauley river, one of the best white water rafting spots in North America. My wife, my dad and one brother also made the trip. I'd forgotten how much I enjoy these trips. We travelled to the center of West Virginia, and adventure in itself. Near Beckley, at the convergence of the Gauley, the New and the Cheat Rivers, is some of the most beautiful, remote land I've seen. The river gorges are deep and inaccessible, the rivers themselves pristine and powerful. It's like going back a thousand years and seeing what the land must've been like before Europeans and capitalism colonized. Our raft guide was a real piece of work. A larger than life 27 year old, he did a great job guiding us down some hideously dangerous rapids (class 5 plus, in his words). He professed to: (1) having 38 stitches in his back from a cancer operation a week ago, (2) having a heart attack at age 24, (3) growing up on one of the mountaintops along the river, (4) sleeping only every third day for about 6 hours. The stitches are confirmed; all else is suspect. But I appreciated him nonetheless, because we finished the 16 mile run in one piece. During this trip I was reminded of what crummy shape I'm in. Try this for 6 hours: lean far out over the raft's edge, paddle for your life (literally), with your feet wedged in very unnatural positions to hold you in the raft. Add to that jumping off a cliff and scrambling back into the raft. Sore didn't begin to describe what I felt at the end of the day. But it's a good soreness. I am also reminded that we all need adventures in our lives. Adventures - things that stimulate the mind, body and soul. Things that break us out of the habits and safety of everyday life. When we stop embracing challenges, we start the long slide to oblivion. For at least a day, my family and I reversed the slide, and turned back the clock just a bit. comment []5:52:07 AM

On the road again, back in KY. Thank God for Radio's offline posting capabilities, because I'm having trouble with dial-up networking (again). At least I can blog a bit. MS networking makes me feel like the rest of humanity probably feels about all computing tools - helpless and frustrated. I just don't get it - I have a connection, I'm moving data back and forth through the service provider(s), but I can't find a website or connect to a mailserver. This has been going on for over 24 hours, so it's not likely just a temporary DNS outage. The problem is, if it's not a DNS problem, I have no idea where to start troubleshooting. I've become so spoiled and complacent with the appliance-like quality of my wireless/cable model connection in the CA home, this feels like the dark ages. A-a-a-acccck. comment []5:13:07 AM

Wednesday, September 25, 2002

Here's another shot in the p2p wars. Can "polluting" (lowering the signal/noise ratio) make a FastTrack network unusable? Perhaps, until this drives the p2p guerillas to adopt (perfect?) digital watermarks (which ironically is what Big Media needs anyway). Cool. comment []2:28:24 PM

Another bit of wisdom from Ray Ozzie, this time on software platforms. I couldn't have said it better myself. comment []7:49:44 AM

Got turned on to this via Dave. The open warfare between the RIAA and p2p music sites is fascinating on many levels, but reading this memo reminds me of the electronic countermeasures (ECM) wars that happened in the late '70s and '80s. In those days I worked for a defense contractor, and spent my time studying the latest "enemy" RF and weapons gear, then coming up with ways to defeat it. Each year brought a new generation of technology-enabled threat, so we'd have to do better with our response. It accelerated the engineering process for radar and signal processing by decades, which is what I think is happening now with Napster, FastTrack, KaZaA, MusicCity et al. The description of FastTrack's p2p architecture and its adaptive supernode topology is brilliant. It's a dynamic, robust commications network, for which I can think of hundreds of applications beyond music sharing. Whatever the RIAA does to attack it technically (attacks in the courts are another matter) will drive more innovation and make it stronger in the long run. That's what happened during the Cold War, and it's happening again in the music wars. It's digital Darwinism at warp speed. Stay tuned... comment []7:36:28 AM

Tuesday, September 24, 2002

Pictures from the Bonnie Raitt concert will be posted - at least one - but a story first. We've been to the SDSU Open Air Theater before, and were surprised to find that no one took the "no cameras" rule seriously. Picture taking, flash and all, was the norm. So for Bonnie Raitt, I took the digital camera. We entered with no problem, took some good photos of Lyle Lovett and Bonnie with no problem (no flash), but during the final bows I stood up and took some pictures openly. Apparently, one of Raitt's security people saw this, took offense, and came after me. After much unpleasantness, including detaining my wife and camera for 30 minutes, we left with the camera and some of the pictures. All in all, it was a crummy way to end what was otherwise a great show. I wonder if Bonnie Raitt knows what jerks she has on her staff. comment []7:13:25 PM

Monday, September 23, 2002

You've gotta love this. Davezilla does it again. I want my totem animal to be an elephant - large, intelligent, long-lived and gets respect from the little animals. comment []7:09:35 PM

Multitasking tonight, watching Monday Night Football and reading/writing. MNF is a bit less boring than usual because St. Louis is playing. I am reminded of one of my favorite George Will quotes: "Football incorporates the two worst elements of American society: violence punctuated by committee meetings." All too true. comment []7:00:57 PM

"An eerie parallel...", indeed. I for one am getting worried. Time to own some krugerands? comment []6:51:42 PM

Got back from a 48-hour Baja trip today and am tired to the bone - but a good tired. Great friends, good adventures, and three times around one of the nicest ocean tracks I've ever played. The Bajamar Ocean nine is the poor man's Pebble Beach - equivalent scenery, quality layout, and 20% of the cost. Very recommended. comment []6:35:31 PM

Local Tragedy I drove by the Peregrine HQ this afternoon, heard about the bankruptcy, and thought about how quickly things have changed for the worse. Just early last year I was "doing a deal" with these guys. The deal never got done (surprise), and little did I know that one year later this would be a dead company. Hundreds of unemployed, a blow to the local economy, and one more tech fizzle. Sad. comment []6:31:24 PM

Saturday, September 21, 2002

This looks to be an experiental week. Bonnie Raitt tonight. Then, a 2-days guys golf trip to Bajamar. Thursday, KD and I leave for white water rafting in West Virginia. Getting a little work done among all this will be tough. comment []12:42:13 PM

OK, maybe irrational optimism isn't dead in the tech world after all. $7.5M to build this application? Call me shortsighted, but this doesn't seem like a sustainable business. A good idea, yes, but not a basis for a long term company. Besides, Shazam will undoubtedly run afoul of the RIAA Nazis and be punished for their good idea. comment []8:36:49 AM

Tomorrow's the autumnal equinox (maybe). If I'm reading the primer on universal time correctly, the equinox will actually be on the 23rd this year in my time zone. Either way, it's downhill from here for a few months. comment []8:23:28 AM

From my friend Matt, both picture and story: some decidedly strange goings-on in Kentucky. comment []7:35:20 AM

Saturday morning is so fine. The quiet, some coffee, surveying the web world, and once in a while some Krispy Kremes. I wonder, does the good vibe of quiet reading and writing offset the damage done by the KKs? comment []7:15:13 AM

For a long time, working in the tech world was like the old Joe Namath saying: "I can't wait for tomorrow, 'cause I get better looking every day." (Joe has a home page, imagine that.) It caused many of us, and many entire corporations, to become irrational optimists. I for one agree with the sentiment in this Reuters article that it's time to stop believing that recovery is 6 months away. We'll probably never see the go-go 90's again, at least not in this lifetime. We need to change our expectations for and about tech companies. comment []7:11:18 AM

Really looking forward to the Bonnie Raitt concert tonight. Saw her in 98; it was one of the best shows ever. comment []6:42:49 AM

Thursday, September 19, 2002

Working in Walnut Creek, CA today. Haven't been here in 3-4 years; being here brings back lots of memories. A couple of bad surprises: the Hertz rental car lot has moved a couple of miles offsite, making Oakland much less desirable as a business destination. Tonight I visit Skates in Berkeley - looking forward to the view of downtown San Francisco. comment []1:08:00 PM

Wednesday, September 18, 2002

Message to Dave: Don't let the flamers get to you. Some people thrive on conflict, and have a perverse love for "in your face" language. They're young and/or stupid, and are on the wrong side of the signal/noise ratio. It takes brains to disagree in a friendly, professional way, and not everybody qualifies. comment []8:32:03 PM

Found a good way to satisfy my Sopranos jones - I've been renting the DVDs at Blockbuster, starting with the 1st season. It's pretty violent, but a great series. Badda bing. comment []8:21:43 PM

Pull Over, Einstein This must be a joke. Scientists at Middle Tennessee State U (?!?) have sent signals at four times the speed of light. If true, why isn't this all over the news? It's as if we suddenly discovered the Earth was indeed flat. I'm having a hard time with this distinction, from the article: "While the peak moves faster than light speed, the total energy of the pulse does not. This means Einstein's relativity is preserved...". I understand the difference between the peak energy pulse and the total energy (just different limits on the integral), but I don't understand how the peak energy pulse is treated as a discrete entity, a particle. Guess I better bone up on my physics. I remember back in the late 70's when Cray machines had hand-crafted, precisely-measured cable sets for every connection, because backplane signal propagation delay became a measurable gating factor for throughput. I thought that was cool, but this is a whole different level. comment []10:08:27 AM

Shit. Shit. Got a call this morning from The Firm, offering me a full time position. The work sounds interesting, right market segment, and the financial potential is outstanding, but it's a full time commitment, requiring me to divert from my current track. Don't know what will be worse - taking it or turning it down. This is one of those questions you'd rather not have to answer. comment []8:06:44 AM

Saw a great little movie last night on DVD: Orange County. It's a coming of age story of an OC surfer dude who becomes inspired to be a writer, wants to go to Stanford, but his hilariously dysfunctional Socal family sabotages him at every turn. It had special meaning for me due to the destructively clueless high school counselor, an archetype I had the misfortune to encounter in those same years. The cast is littered with the progeny of stars. Tom Hanks' son (recognized), Larry Kasden's son (recognized), Sissy Spacek's daughter (not recognized, but now that I know I can see the resemblance). Recommended. comment []7:40:18 AM

Tuesday, September 17, 2002

Working, even posting to the weblog, is an act of sheer willpower today. Feel like hell. But there's work to do, and I'm grateful for it. comment []7:56:51 AM

I'm thinking pretty seriously about re-focusing the work/tech part of the blog, along with a refocus on my career. Pervasive computing embodies most of my technical interests - wireless networks, intelligent devices, distributed applications, parallel processing, embedded software - and is a nascent but growing field. It's likely to be a dynamic field for the years I have left to work. Plus, I know at least one other person interested in putting together a business partnership to work this area. Could be fun. comment []7:32:53 AM

Emily with two of her friends. comment []7:15:37 AM

Monday, September 16, 2002

I'm returning to the Bay Area this week, for the first time in a while. In fact, I'm going to Walnut Creek, where I spent a lot of time in '94-'96. Haven't been back much since then. Lots of good memories there, including friends, interesting work (mostly), great wine and food. Skates stands out as a great place to gnosh and check out the SF skyline. comment []8:08:14 AM

From Glenn: Looks like Wales could be a model for the well-documented digital access problems of my own Appalachia. It seems to me that connecting rural communities via broadband is a likely way to stop the one-way outbound migration of people, particularly young people. comment []7:38:03 AM

Sunday, September 15, 2002

It's trivial, it's mundane, but...two straight rounds in the 80's (both 87, to be exact) deserves a mention. The golf swing feels good all of a sudden. comment []6:46:15 PM

Tonight brings home the only sad part of not traveling so much any more. The Sopranos starts a new season, and I don't have HBO. Previously, I could count on being in a hotel with HBO at least once a week and catch most of the episodes. I should probably just fork over the cash and erase the only semi-good memory of the bad old days of travel. comment []9:31:15 AM

It's pretty sad to see what has become of one of my favorites from back in the salad days, Billy Joel. The NYT reports that Joel "...just wants a girlfriend". The picture in the article says it all. (I would've put the picture in this post, but I read the NYT rules for reuse of their photos, and it's a lot of trouble). I'm not sure what the moral of this story is. So many stereotypes involved here: tortured artist; middle life crisis; the obsessive/excessive personality; not looking cool but wanting to be cool (though I think Joel turned out pretty cool-looking, after all). No matter the backstory of the song, and whatever happens to BJ, "Just The Way You Are" is still one of the best love songs ever. comment []8:58:59 AM

Saturday, September 14, 2002

Part of yesterday's goodness was due to the very enjoyable round I played at The Auld Course. It's one of the few San Diego courses I had not played, and other than location, it could become one of my favorites. Good service, great greens, and a truly unique layout. I've not seen anything quite like it. Recommended. comment []10:33:42 AM

Saw this on Dan Gillmor's weblog. It's a pdf file (pretty damn funny). comment []7:39:16 AM

Yesterday was the practically perfect day - just one of those days that makes you glad to be alive. More of those, please. comment []7:29:48 AM

Thursday, September 12, 2002

Evan Williams reminds me that my search for the perfect calendar software would be over, if only I used a Mac. iCal looks sweet. My goal is to have an online calendar that doesn't tie me to any company or client, but interfaces well with their chosen corporate calendar systems - usually Outlook. So far, I've found nothing I like in the Win2K world, so I flit among 2 or 3 calendars supplied by clients, hoping that I don't miss appointments because I have no integrated view. comment []4:55:32 PM

After a little confusion on my part, I've gotten a nice new RU tool installed and working. The tool creates a picture gallery, adding a badly-needed feature to Radio. I'll link the newly-enabled picture gallery into this site Real Soon Now. Thanks to David Davies, who authored the tool and submitted cheerfully to my questions about invoking it. It's pretty amazing, actually - I'm using a complex bit of software (RU), for only $40, and others around the world are extending it, adding features and grass-roots support. David, for example, lives somewhere in the UK, and here I sit in San Diego getting email help from him, gratis. I've been using the Internet in one form or another since the 80's, and its reach still amazes me. comment []4:10:34 PM

Got the picture tool working again. I think last night's problem was in the RU cloud, not the tool itself. Here's one of the promised Yosemite pictures, showing the two intrepid wilderness chicks in full hiking regalia. BTW, this JPEG was 11 MB (!) on the camera. I've taken a lot of photos, but I was surprised by the size. The immensely detailed background is the likely culprit. Using Photoshop to prepare the JPEG for the web brought the size down to a few hundred KB, but...whoa. I've gotta rethink my digital picture storage and publishing tools if I'm getting >10MB per photo. comment []10:14:43 AM

Another note on pagerank. Google's cached copy of my site - used to feed any/all searches - is 5 weeks old. That's not surprising, as the web is a pretty big place these days (2,469,940,685 web pages, according to Google's home page), and I can easily imagine that minor sites only get crawled and cached once a month. That may explain the low pagerank, but it doesn't explain the brand-new, 1-post weblogs I've seen with higher rankings. Just one more item in today's quest for deterministic behavior. comment []8:07:35 AM

I really wanted to share some pictures from the DM 9-11 tribute yesterday, but I'm having problems with the Radio Picture Tool again. When it works, it's great, but...something's not quite right. Digital machines that exhibit analog behavior are really irritating. comment []8:00:20 AM

Wednesday, September 11, 2002

Where The Turf Meets The Surf Spent the afternoon and evening at the Del Mar Racetrack. It was closing day, and the 9-11 ceremonies were really moving. NYC cops, firefighters and San Diego firefighters worked together to spread a football field sized US flag over the track. Meanwhile, my fey wife managed to pick the winners in 7 of 8 races. If I didn't know better, I'd call it luck. Too bad she only makes $2 bets. comment []9:09:52 PM

The Radio servers are exhibiting a strange failure mode this AM - the comment subsystem is broken. Haven't seen that before. comment []5:22:32 AM

It's 9-11, and insomnia has me in its grip. Getting up at 4am makes for a long day. It's hard not to get sucked in to the media frenzy surrounding this day. Feels like we should be staying home, reflecting quietly, rather than reliving the thing over and over. comment []5:20:23 AM

Tuesday, September 10, 2002

Back in SD today, and Kathryn's back from Yosemite. Pictures posted later today after I get some work done. After four straight days of 95+ degree heat in Kentucky, San Diego feels great (so much for the 9-7 "I like KY in the fall" post). No wonder it's crowded here - the rest of the country has something called weather, and at extremes it's not fun. comment []7:40:45 AM

Twenty four hours later, no change in the pagerank. Experiment continues. comment []7:36:28 AM

Monday, September 09, 2002

This Is A Test Google's pagerank feature is starting to piss me off. I installed it on my browser, and every page I've accessed since then has a rank of at least 3 - except mine. Even brand new pages, weblogs with one or two posts, have ranks of 3 and 4. This page has a rank of 1 and only 1, according to Google. Figures. So here's the experiment: the following is a list of likely popular search engine terms. I'll post these, wait a couple of days to let the web crawlers update their indices, and see if the rank goes up. Then I'll delete this post, and see if the rank drops accordingly. Anna Nicole Smith; Bruce Springsteen tour; American Idol; Best blog; Anna Kournikova; Tom Cruise; Tiger Woods; Wireless; Sex; Monday Night Football That should do it. comment []4:33:47 AM

Sunday, September 08, 2002

Had a great moment yesterday. Was walking a quick 9 holes in the intense KY heat, playing alone, sweating. Caught up with three 20-something studs in carts who were waiting for the green to clear 290 yards away before they hit. They sized me up and told me they needed to wait, being big hitters and all, but were sure I could go ahead. Thankful for the invite to play through but stinging from the insult, I stepped up and nutted one down the middle, about 250 yards. I trudged ahead to my ball, hit a flop wedge within 2 feet, and tapped in my birdie. I waved at them, then stood on the next tee and watched them all hit it deep into the woods lining both sides of the fairway. To twist a quote, playing well is the best revenge. comment []6:51:31 AM

From Dave, one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time. Anybody who works in IT knows people like this.  The Chronicles of George. comment []6:37:27 AM

It's Miller Time My friend Matt one-upped me on a desirable new digital timepiece. He wants one of these, and I have to agree. "If you've got the time, we've got the beer...". Or something like that. comment []6:25:32 AM

Saturday, September 07, 2002

I'd forgotten how much I like Kentucky in the fall. (One of the benefits of having a poor memory is that every season holds nice surprises.) 80 degree days, 55 degree nights, and perfectly clear starry nights. I know that my frequent jumping back and forth between KY and San Diego makes the contrast very stark, but there's something about the hills and the peacefulness of a land that isn't bursting with housing developments - something really great. comment []5:09:12 AM

I'll be back in the Atlanta airport soon. This explains why I wasn't able to get WLAN access there on Thursday. Maybe next time, if Boingo gets busy. comment []4:59:39 AM

Friday, September 06, 2002

I Want This Job From NYT: If ever there was a case for reform of executive compensation, this is it. I like Jack Welch's results as much as the next good capitalist, but come on...this reeks. $17,307/day consulting fees Company-supplied housing on NY's Central Park West at $80,000/month Courtside Knicks seat Four paid country clubs Use of the corporate jet, valued at $291,000/month A "pension plan" that pays $9M year Paid limo service Paid security And the list goes on. I don't think anyone in history - no emperor, no King of the British Empire - ever lived this well. Stunning. It's true - the rich really are different. comment []7:31:04 AM

Thursday, September 05, 2002

The Desktop Is Dead Here's the intro to a paper I'm writing about the need for corporations to change the way computers are used and managed. It seems no matter where I look these days, I see a need or opportunity for pervasive computing. comment []6:12:41 PM

Trying to kill some time in the Atlanta airport, looking for a network. No luck. Either ATL doesn't do Wi-Fi, or I'm far enough away from the main terminal that it doesn't matter. When I do get a network, I'll check the hotspot maps. comment []6:00:06 PM

Picked up a copy of my new favorite magazine, CPU (Computer Power User). It's a blend of what Byte used to be, with some of the cool factor of the original Wired, including a Fetish-like section on extreme hardware. My favorite in this issue is Craig Bartell's hacked Wi-Fi network connecting two houses 4.3 miles apart. Very cool, and very practical for lots of rural sites. comment []3:29:23 PM

Posting from 37,000 feet, on the way to Atlanta. It's nearly heaven - a first class seat, some middling wine, and a laptop for writing. Give me a net connection and I'd fly around the world. The plane is really empty. The few passengers here are already starting to talk about 9-11. Wait till Monday... comment []3:28:32 PM

I really, really want one of these. comment []10:08:39 AM

Glenn Fleischman's news today "Texas Instruments' new chips: 10 percent of the power use" is good news indeed. The article is referring to Wi-Fi chipsets. My laptop's battery life with the 11b card enabled is halved. I'm a EE, and it still amazes me how fast we can make improvements in the technology. comment []9:49:26 AM

Flying to KY today. Flying back on September 10th, I might add. I almost booked the return for 9-11, just for the "see, you can't intimidate me" factor. Turns out I needed to get back for a business meeting on the 11th - how droll we've become again, and how quickly. Dave had some great things to say about the one year anniversary of 9-11-01. I particularly liked "...So what was the lesson of 9-11 that the US has failed to learn? I think it's that God doesn't think we're as important as we do." I truly believe that. We won't mature as a species until we stop believing that we're at the center of the universe. That's "we" as in a person, a nation, and a species. The universe, and the time it's been around, is a very, very big vector. I'm just trying to enjoy and be proud of my too-few coordinates in it. comment []9:38:21 AM

Wednesday, September 04, 2002

Installed Google's toolbar plugin and page rank feature on my browser. I've gotta admit, I'm underwhelmed. The rankings don't make much sense. I'm seeing at least one brand new site that yields a rank of 4, when other sites with many more links and more history ranking at 1-2. Strange. comment []8:45:41 PM

Sony's announcement of a new broadband-ready PVR is pretty exciting, given my current project. And the specs - 320 GB disk, Linux on a MIPS chip, and a user interface that apologizes if you don't like its program choices. Wow! comment []8:40:51 PM

Had to make a gut-wrenching quick decision today. Lost my trusty Motorola Startac somehow, and needed a new mobile phone, quick. After way too little research, ended up with a Moto v60i. First impressions - pretty nice. The video poker feature alone may be worth the switch. comment []8:33:00 PM

One of the best things I get to do today is some paid brainstorming on the future of content-on-demand and PVR systems. The question is how to construct an evolvable combination of online services and home-resident devices, balancing the wants of users with the need to protect the IP of content providers (and make the box/service provider profitable). Should be fun. My initial thinking involves metadata tagging of all content passing through the system. If we can keep track of every read/write done for a user, we can do something about it - get payment, create a summary report, even destroy the content from a distance. This intersects big time with the RIAA and DCMA debates, debates in which I come down mostly on the users' side, so getting the scheme right is fundamental. Cryptography also has a place here. The author's content (content for a price) should be kept secret until some assurance of identity and payment are given. The argument against most of these tagging/management schemes for IP protection is that they can be hacked. I've got news - almost anything, perhaps exactly anything, can be hacked. The trick is to set the bar so high, and keep resetting it, that it's just not worth anyone's time. So what if a dozen ubergeeks get some free movies in version 1.6 of the system - we can reset the protection for version 1.7, and said ubergeeks will have to try again. Meanwhile, 99.999% of the world just wants something that works and isn't too onerous or overt in its protection schemes. comment []7:09:33 AM

Watched the final competition (thank God) of American Idol last night. I have to admit, it's the slickest bit of programming and marketing I've ever seen - the champion reality show, bar none. While it has a very high cheese factor, it's also got a bit of the car wreck in it - you're repelled, but you just can't look away. My vote (which I withheld, because they don't allow online voting) goes to Kelli (Kelly?). And I agree with this review of last night's custom songs - aaacck, they were bad. comment []6:44:32 AM

Tuesday, September 03, 2002

You've gotta love this quote from a Houston Chronicle article: "...Monday, Perry received the Teamsters endorsement in Houston at the new Teamsters hall, built with nonunion workers because Teamsters officials considered union labor too expensive. " comment []1:42:48 PM

Given the amount of ink Dave is giving to RSS history and developments, I thought I'd better bone up on it. Here's a good article published earlier this year describing RSS, giving Dave lots of cites. Kind of makes me want to get busy and learn Perl. Hmmm... comment []10:18:07 AM

On further review of the rural net access problem, this is a very encouraging development. Perhaps this is a model for more of rural America, Appalachian or not. Places like Wise County, VA could become preferred places to live - low cost of living, low crime, not crowded - if information workers could be assured of a strong net presence. comment []8:09:45 AM

This will be a blessedly short week. Two full work days, one travel day, then another work day, this time in Kentucky. I'll be without broadband access for four days (is there life south of 384 kilobits/second?).  There's been a lot written about the lack of net access in rural America, particularly in Appalachia, my home turf. Steve Stroh noted this early this summer, as did several universities, oddly not in Appalachia. comment []7:52:38 AM

Decided to take the Corante headlines out of my site. Sorry, guys. I liked having some narrowcasted news on the site, but it just wasn't aligned with where I'd like to take the blog. comment []7:41:07 AM

Monday, September 02, 2002

It's Labor Day, the runner-up ironic holiday. (I count Christmas as the #1 ironic holiday, as it's the day when when should do something for the poor, but most of us just consume ever-increasing amounts). On Labor Day we rest. Go figure. And today we're getting a record Socal heat, 91 degrees and climbing at the beach. Must be 110 inland. Happy holiday!. comment []1:09:28 PM

Last update: 9/30/2002; 5:19:04 AM.