random commentary

tinkerer writes:

Did I forget to get drunk? Damn, it's this crazy schedule, I'd forget my name if it weren't on my work badge... Oh, well, they don't sell alcohol at our neighborhood rink, which is where I spent tonight anyway. A loss, but baby girl did good and didn't let any goals in. It was the *other* goalie who let 'em rack up four counters before she got into the net. I suppose this makes up for Monday night when *she* let in four, and he only let in one.

She was, however, wearing green today. I insisted. No, not because we're Irish. I just didn't want to hear about all the pinching that was bound to happen at school--we're talking 10 year olds here! She protested. "Mom, I don't need to wear green. No one is going to pinch me." "Yes they will." "No, they *won't*. I don't need any green." "Yes they will." "Mom, everybody knows I'm a HOCKEY PLAYER and that I'll KILL them if they touch me!" "Yes they will..." She came home sporting flourescent green fingernails. "Got any polish remover? I'm sick of this stuff, but everyone had to paint their nails with it, even the boys." "Even the boys, hm? That's unusual. And which enterprising person thought to bring polish that color to class?" "The teacher!"

Guess the teacher knows about 10 year olds and their penchant for pinching, too. Clever way to insure there were no excuses about forgetting to wear green...

flying squirrel writes:

I don't remember ever getting pinched. Although, now that you mention it, that did seem to be part of the whole deal...

1 writes:

I don't get it. Is Sterling saying that Microsoft should be held responsible for the problems on the internet instead of the people who actually cause the problems with their programs (viriuses, worms, etc.) or the people who make the choice to use Outlook?

I also don't get what he said the Marine UN Inspector said about WMDs. How can a country be too incompetent to have these weapons when facts have shown that not only did they have them but used them on innocent Iraqis <sp>. Also, I saw an interview with Blix last week where he said that the UN Inspectors believed that there were weapons at one time, though not sure if they were still around. So was it a situation like 9 out of ten dentists aprove where this Marine was the odd one out?

From what I got out of the rant was that Sterling has his beliefs and therefore went out to find support for them while ignoring the facts in the process.

matt writes:

I'd get ready for more Microsoft annoyances...

XP SP2 is finally at release candidate 1.

I suppose that could very well be the source of your irritation... however, think of how irritating it might be if they didn't make RC1 widely available before sending out the end result (to the general public via Windows Update... though at close to 300 MB (from what I've read), I'm not sure how they're going to get it down to dialup users...).

The good news overall is that things should be more secure by default.

(I have to agree with 1 on the point that if there weren't schmucks out there polluting "cyberspace" with virii, worms, and other crapola that things would be different. It's one thing to try to account for reasonable use and safeguard against dangerous behaviour... but to have to account for every malicious possibility in a codebase that large...

I guess it comes down to the old(ish) addage -- You can never absolutely prove the absence of bugs, only absolutely confirm their existance.)

{Oh for those that are interested... there's a sad little article on Salon about "Why Software Stinks"... though it was actually on Slashdot I read it... it's entitled "Why Programming Stinks" (Perhaps it's the inability of programmers to accurately accept/recount what they're told, since it's one thing to disagree, but...)}

Wow! That was longer than anticipated. :-)

flying squirrel writes:

I'd do my patented reply thing, but this is going to be too long, I think.

1's first point: I said I agreed with *most* of what he says. This one I might agree with to a lesser extent. My reasons are probably self-serving--I'm a software developer. Software has bugs. Intoducing a concept of legal liability to bugs is kind of scary.

That said, why the fuck does Outlook Express launch executables in the preview pain? Are they fucking retarded?

Point the second: I'm tempted not to go there. This is a somewhat less emotional issue for me as it is for Americans during an election year. But you asked, so I'll defend why I agree what I think he's saying here.

Does anyone seriously think that the invasion is or ever was ever about weapons of mass distruction? That was simply the line they used to sell the war to the UN. The was in Iraq had far more to do with Saudi Arabia than with Iraq. If you don't believe me, go back and read the things that Paul Wolfowitz was saying before and during the war.

Are there any facts? Yes and no. There are too many "facts" out there. That's his point. There's no real evidencew of anything. It's all spin and infowar. We won't find out what any of this crap is really about till Powell or or Rice or Wolfowitz or Cheney write their memoirs in a decade or two.

You have to realize that they're trying to run a realpolitik sort of war. That's really easy in a dictatorship. That's incredibily hard in a democracy. Because in the end, their hardest war has to be fought at home. They have to get you guys to go along with it.

I'm not saying that because I'm a loony leftwing fanatic. I entirely disagree with the invasion of Iraq, but not because I have some sort of love for Saddam Hussein. I disagree with it because it's not going to work. The best they can hope for at this stage is to have Saudi extremists focusing their rage at Iraq than some Western target. But really, nothing much changes.

1 writes:

I can't even get Outlook Express to open attachments anymore let alone have it open things itself. I don't know when it happened, maybe it has to do with the antivirus program, but it can be frustrating when people actually send you something that you want to open.

I reread the Sterling thing and I guess I don't read what you do. It could have to do with him focusing on the current US Administration, and the Spanish fiasco, instead of pointing out the spin and lies that come from all administrations in the world and throughout history.

After reading it again, I get confused where he is talking about getting internet access to the world's poor, and then talks about how the internet basically corrupts people, at least how I read it.

You're right about the WMDs not being what the war was about and just giving the excuse, but I fully support what is/has gone on in Iraq the last year. Then again, I was angry with the first Bush for not finishing the job thirteen years ago, and am also angry that the US ever supported Hussein in the first place. As for whether the restructuring of Iraq will or won't work only history will tell and it will depend upon what history is written at which time. At least there is an attempt being made to improve the lives there. It is too bad that the weapons that are so prevalent in the world have made it nearly impossible for the oppressed people to actually rise up and have a chance the way it should be.

tinkerer writes:

Iraq most certainly should have evidence of WMD. The Reagan administration provided Hussein with plenty of 'em, primarily so that Iraq would not immediately lose the war with Iran. Remember that war? The one that same US administration instigated to begin with? And the whole scandal about the arms that were provided to Iran so that *they* wouldn't lose to Iraq? Maybe not, this was a bit back in time, in fact some years before that same administration helped the Taliban into power to oust the Soviets...

What Iraq lacks is evidence of being capable of creating WMD. They can't. And since they used up Ronnie's supply (mainly on their own population), then who were we to worry?

I think the whole thing about the internet is that it provides such an incredible amount of data in a truly astounding way. And accessible, yes, in a way humans would not have imagined was possible so short a time ago. But, not surprisingly, as more people gain access the data pool is becoming polluted with information that is not only unhelpful but all too often outright destructive to the human spirit and values of life. Good example, I connected in 1996, and the first 3 years I did not even get a single piece of junk email. Now, even with an access company that aggressively intercepts spam, it is not unusual for me to get viagra ads and porn solicitations in my email box. Or suspicious "employment opportunities". Etc. And I've noticed that now when I do a search on Yahoo! the first several listings I get back are "Sponsor" listings. Considering I do most of my searching looking for information for intellectual reasons (*not* sales!), that seems like a waste of bandwidth indeed. The 3rd world populations would benefit from information, yes, but shopping opportunities? C'mon, folks--we can do better than that! On the other hand, information brings potential of power, so perhaps we should not be so amazed that--as the 'net becomes more the average man's tool--the politicos have not seen fit to help shape the internet into a thing of rational beauty without so many commercial thorns...

Viruses. Um. Up until last Fall, I and many of my co-workers used Eudora for our email interface. But now we have no choice, we must all use Outlook. "So what, you think it will enhance our productivity to be using this? Why don't we just paint targets on our monitors and put up signs that say, 'send viruses here'?" Yes, I actually said that to the head of automation department. He just laughed, albeit somewhat ruefully. But then, he's the kind that always does what he is told. A perfect administrator, wot?

So Squirrel. Gotta know. Ya trading in that buggy of yours for an electric car yet? ;>

flying squirrel writes:

I was a little dubious on the subject of what wireless Internet access could possibly do to improve the lot of anybody at all in Africa. I mean, computers are expensive, for one thing. And you have to know how to use them. And they need power. It doesn't make much sense at all.

Check out this, though:
http://dingo.uwaterloo.ca/~ihoward/geekcorps/docs/therecord_article.html

Far as I can tell, this is what it's really about. Giving some sort of information source to radio stations who can then pass along the information (filtered of the penis-enlarging ads, presumably) to the people. Now it starts to sound sensible and worthwhile.

matt writes:

Hey!

New GURPS!

http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/

flying squirrel writes:

Well, good thing I didn't rush out and buy the revised 3rd ed. I do have one of the compendia, though. I'm glad they're obsoleting those. They were starting to use them as core rule books, which I didn't think was right. And yay for a generic fantasy book! Not that I'll get it...