I think, therefore I croak

2004-05-19T18:03:00.000-05:00

Sh#t, my back hurts...
No, its not be just getting old-DER (not old), I've got scoliosis (curvature of the spine)... so stress is not evenly distributed and thus well supported... therefore parts of my back just simply hurt sometimes... and today seems to be one of those days.

2004-05-19T18:00:00.000-05:00

Woohoo... Wireless print server...
Just got my wireless print server I ordered from newegg.com. Now, I don't have to have a dedicated machine to act as a printserver. Plus, being wireless, I can put this where I want. It does parallel and usb printers... wireless and ethernet hookups... and speaks all the major protocols: tcpip printing, windows (smb), and mac (appletalk). Haven't set it up yet. Hopefully its not a pain in the ass.

2004-05-19T12:41:00.000-05:00

*oh*...uh oh... (scrambles out of office cube for the can)...

2004-05-19T12:30:00.000-05:00

Misc (aka sh#t I'm too lazy to categorize)...

Well, now that I've managed to successfully *sarcasm* stagnate my blog, think I'll post. Actually, I just got fed up w/the work it took to express my thoughts... I like to bitch and moan, but to take the time and effort to put it in a blog requires work... guess that just makes me lazy. That, and the fact you really can't post ALL your thoughts because some ppl who read it know you. So, when your whining about someone (job, family, friends), you can't really throw it in a blog they might read. Well, you can but then you'll havve to deal w/all the sh#t that goes with it.

Hmmm.... I'd like to say I have something clever/interesting here... mmmm, but I don't.

Some favorite joke names I enjoy nowdays for azzhole sites that make me register:
Hugh Jass
Haywood Jablowme
Mike Hunt
Amanda Huginakiss (from the simpson's. And, no, I like chics not dudes).

Errr... lately, I've been gamin in JK2 doing Insta-gib. JK2=Jedi Knight. Insta-gib=1 shot, 1 kill. Pretty d#mn cool. My char is deadmeat. So, I dare your lame azz to get on and grease (kill) me. Actually, I'm not that good so shouldn't be too hard.

Err..... ????.... hmmm..... memory cache empty.

2004-01-20T16:02:00.000-06:00

Dean... he's angry... all the time... That's only I know about the guy... he's angry all the time. Every ad I see.. "Hi I'm Dean and I'm angry...". Over and over... apparently he's angry all the time. He lost in Iowa and he's what? you guessed it, angry! The guys got some serious anger issues.

"Hi I'm Dean. I lost in Iowa and I'm angry. When I win, I'm angry. I'm angry when I eat. Heck, I'm angry when I'm nailing my wife. I just made all the lights and I'm angry. I'm angry when I'm not angry. And you know what, that makes me angry."

Jeez... just what I want... someone angry w/a nuke button available. You know what, that makes me angry... hey, think I'll run for office. Grrrrrrr.....!!!!!

2004-01-13T16:04:00.000-06:00

Back in the saddle again... Well, after taking a much deserved hiatus from the mating game aka dating, time to jump back in. Probably been a few years. Yes, I was that sick of it. But, new town new start... plus, give me a chance to see the sites some. Gotta get my GE profile (Great Expectations) updated, might toss something out on Yahoo Personals but don't know... other than that, guess it'll just be pure random luck... I don't do the "bar/stalking prey" thing so that's out. Could try kidnapping which solves the "get a girl prob", but puts a real damper on the whole "get to like me" thing... plus there's the whole jail thing too... so gonna pass on that.

2004-01-13T14:11:00.000-06:00

Viva Las Vegas! Got finished booking hotel and airfare to Las Vegas this weekend. Friend and I are going to Vegas to have a blast. Never been, hear Vegas is pretty cool. I don't gamble so the massive gambling losses shouldn't be a prob. Will probably catch alot of sites. Got Wayne Newton on my list... he's been around so long he's went from uncool to cool again.

2004-01-13T14:08:00.000-06:00

*lets out explosive breath* I'M ALIVE... I imagine my absense has killed all the traffic that passed thru. But, what the heck, I'll post anyways... heck, maybe I'll have an anon log I can post all uncensored thoughts to... err, I don't think so. Anyways, I'm alive and busier than a 1-legged man in a punting competition. At some point, I'll post some stuff about what's been going on.

2003-11-05T23:18:00.000-06:00

Aww man... no "Major Tom" or "Silent Running" in iTunes music store... was looking for these... not found. Bummer.

2003-11-05T23:16:00.000-06:00

Matrix Revolutions review.... grade: B... Saw it today (opening day). It was good. Better than the 2nd (which was mediocre at best) and but not as good as the 1st. In defense of the 2nd movie, I should say this. It covered the middle of the story arc, and you're just not gonna get much "movement" at that point. Kind of like tossing a ball up, it has the least movement/velocity as it reaches the top of its arc and reverses downward. The begining and ends will generally be more exciting. Anyways, I liked it... I think they could've shorted it in a few spots. Also... it will probably take a few viewings before you pick up everything in the movie... especially in the last 5 mins when they really cram alot of stuff in there... mmm... that's it.

2003-11-04T19:23:00.000-06:00

Matrix Revolutions (movie #3).... oh crap, not another dud! .... been readin reviews and it aint pretty. they consistently say "great action special effects, no substance... ie no drama, char dev, etc". You know they said the same thing on #2 and I shrugged it off. Then, I found out they were right... frankly, #2 was a bit lame. Well, they're saying the same thing on this one and I fear they may be right. Here's one of the funniest quotes I found about the movie:
...the Wachowski brothers have delivered a dud so disappointing, they may as well have bussed in Ewoks to save Zion.

2003-11-03T05:18:00.000-06:00

"Who's looking out for you?" by Bill O'Reilly... Got this as an audiobook from iTunes music store (which rocks). Good book! Highly recommend it. Haven't finished it yet, but its been great so far. Very enlightening, well reasoned, and nicely presented. I've always found Bill to be calm cool and rational... presenting thoughts and assertions based on logic and evidence. Anyways, the books is very enlightening and I recommend it.

2003-10-31T00:15:00.000-06:00

A MacOSX "Oh crap!" moment... Had a rather interesting and bizarre "oh crap" moment today. I need to boot off my diskwarrior3 disk to defrag the drives. Prior to 10.3, I used to just press "C" will it rebooted and it booted the cd. For some reason, "C" nor "apple-C" didn't work. So, I went into "startup disks" and selected the cd. Ok, no big deal right? Wrong! When it boots off the cd, it locks the drive so you can't eject. And, when you're done w/diskwarrior, the cd is still locked. No big deal right? Just pop the drive when it reboots.. wrong! Unlike a pc, on the mac there's is no eject button on the drive door... its on the keyboard... and despite the reboot and frantically pressing the eject key, the drive wouldn't eject the cd. And, since the system was still set to boot off the cd, it just kept booting the cd which kept the cd locked. So.. basically, I couldn't get the cd out nor could i get it to boot off the harddrive. What the F#CK?! Its a fun moment realizing you're screwed and imaging yourself calling AppleSupport "Yeah, my mac is dead. It won't stop booting off the cd it won't eject". Fixed it. Opened the case (shhh, don't tell AppleSupport) and unplugged the cd drive. Wah-lah! No cd boot and straight into hd where I could reset the "startup" disk back to the hd. Then, plug the cd back in and its all fixed.

Tip for Apple... you can set standard pc bios to boot in sequence.... such as cd, then hd. You might try that. Little simpler. i still don't know how I'll boot of the cd in 10.3 w/o screwing myself.

2003-10-29T23:02:00.000-06:00

Farkin hilarious.... Fark photoshop contest: favorite sexual euphenism...
see link here

2003-10-21T22:24:00.000-05:00

Fark moment: (Admiral) Ackbar Grocery store... As I was on my way home, I glanced to my left to see "Ackbar Groceries" store in a strip mall. Had to laugh... I pictured Admiral Ackbar behind the register blurting out "Its a Trap!". (fyi: its notorious that someone will sneak in Admiral Ackbar and his catch phrase in "its a trap" into every photoshop contest at fark.com... its farkin funny). I'm thinkin about snapping a photo and sending it in to fark.

2003-10-19T22:37:00.000-05:00

Total Annihilation... Some guys at work re-introduced me to TA. It came out in like 1998 and I remember playing it some.... but that's it. Well, I've rediscovered it and its awesome... for raw carnage, its awesome. Very cool game. Think I'm gonna recommend it for the next lan party.

2003-10-19T22:33:00.000-05:00

Mac OS X: Panther (10.3) on Oct 24th... Apple is release the next version of its OS dubbed "Panther" (v10.3) on Oct 24. They're having a launch party at the Apple store here in town. Think I'll go to it... oughta be fun... plus, I want the OS. Lots of cool features, plus I'm hoping they fixed a few gripes I had also.

2003-10-19T22:30:00.000-05:00

iTrip ROCKS!... Got the iTrip (fm broadcaster) for my iPod so I can play my iPod thru the car stereo. Its awesome. Best broadcaster I've used yet. Easy to use, great clarity, and no wires. Everything I used previously was a pain the ass to use (wires everywhere) and the transmission quality sucked. Hats off to apple for a superior broadcaster.

2003-10-04T11:41:00.000-05:00

Driving differences between KC and St Louis... Thought I'd take a moment to note some of the driving differences I've noticed between KC and St Louis.

1. More cars: On average, there's alot more cars.
2. Better congestion flow: The traffic moves alot better than it would in KC. In KC, if you got a certain amount of congestion, plan on waiting a while. There's more congestion here, but it seems to go faster.
3. Center lane is your friend: Just about everywhere you go, there's a yellow center turn lane. I figured out the purpose of it is for turning left. Normally in KC, there is no center lane and even if there was, most ppl wait for both directions to clear before turning. Here, if you wait for both directions to clear, you'll be there for a VERY long time. Instead, here you wait til the left clears, pull into the center, then pull on out once the right clears.
4. Its ok to cut ppl off: Lastly, its ok to cut each other off. Basically, if there's a large enough gap so that someone won't wreck you or have to lock up their breaks, its ok to pull out in front of them. In KC, you pull out in front of someone and impede their progress, that's rude. Here, its status quo.
5. Horn still means "asshole" in St Louis: Occassionally, I've noticed it used to communicate such as short honk "hey, lights green". But, most of the time its the long honk "you asshole". Same as KC.

That's most the major stuff I've noticed so far. I'm sure I'll add more over time.

2003-10-04T11:23:00.000-05:00

Lab Resurrected.... Finally got my lab set back up in St Louis. Still need to setup the Apple and a few other things. But, got the major stuff in place. Interesting problem w/hooking up my cable modem. There's no cable outlet in the study So, I hooked up the cable modem and the wireless router in the living room and used an wireless ethernet bridge in the study. Good idea, bad solution. The problem is my router is accessed over a wireless solution... so, when the signal drops, my computers lose their network connection... so whatever your working on, downloading, etc gets screwed... plus, I started having probs w/computers acquiring each others IP. So... I thinkin I need to get another wireless bridge, use them to bridge the distance, and put the router in the lab... this way, all computers are connected to the router via wire instead of wireless.

Update:
Lab is fixed. (intently watches network icon for disconnect as he utters those words). Instead of connection my router to the lab using an ethernet bridge, I used 2 wap's (wireless access pts) in bridging mode... connected the bridges to each other... then hooked 1 up to the modelm and the other to my router... works like a champ... haven't had a single prob in 2 hrs. Good news... I bought each wap for $70... now I can take the single wireless ethernet bridge back to Best Buy that I bought for $106.

2003-09-25T14:28:00.000-05:00

A definition of pornography... while reading a review by Roger Ebert of Underworld, he quoted a definition of porn mentioned by some writer.

"A porno movie ... is a movie where you become acutely aware that the characters are spending too much time getting in and out of cars and walking in and out of doors."

I thought that was hilarious. Had to put in the blog.

2003-09-24T12:48:00.000-05:00

Farkin hilarious... Fark photoshop contest: computer books w/Harlequinn romance covers... Another awesome photoshop contest...
see link here

2003-09-19T01:43:00.000-05:00

Fark Photoshop contest: combine 2 or more sports.... Freakin hilarious.... gotta check this out.
see link here

2003-09-16T17:29:00.000-05:00

Dumbass proposal to fine ppl who haven't patch their computers and spread viruses (Proof you don't have to be smart to publish on the net)... Saw this link off of slashdot. Someone proposed the incredibly stupid idea of fining ppl if they haven't properly patched their machines and spread viruses. How'd you like to get a $2000 bill in the mail because of an M$ flaw that caused you machine to get hacked? The problem isn't the patching, the problem is the buggy ass software in the first place. And, do you get to sue M$ when you apply the patch and it breaks your system?
see dumbass proposal here

2003-09-16T17:15:00.000-05:00

The fallacy and hypocrisy of "lost sales" in medai industry... Saw this link off of slashdot. Its to an article written by Orson Scott Card which is incredibly mind opening.

Here's some favorite quotes:
"If you wrote something as an employee of a company that paid you a salary for creating it, then your writing was a "work made for hire" and the copyright belonged to the company. You had no rights."

"A lot of publishers began routinely requiring writers to sign contracts that declared that what they wrote was a "work for hire," so that the authors wouldn't own any part of their own work."

"They've been manipulating copyright laws for years, and all the manipulations were designed to steal everything they could from the actual creators of the work."

"Movie studios have, for decades, used "creative accounting" to make it so that even hit movies never manage to break even, thus depriving the creative people of their "percentage of profits.""

"the people complaining about all the internet "thieves" are, by any reasonable measure, rapacious profiteers who have been parasitically sucking the blood out of copyrights on other people's work."

"huge fortunes like, say, David Geffen's were made by getting ownership of record publishing companies. Count on it -- Geffen got a lot richer than any but a handful of the actual performers. And when their careers are over, the record company owner keeps right on earning."

see link here

2003-09-15T17:27:00.000-05:00

Economic ecosystem...Biological ecosystems are well known. The interdependency on the environment and organisms. For example water... it rains, rain is absorbed and used, and eventually returns back to the atmosphere where it starts the cycle again. Imagine a world where it was a 1 way process... it rained, rain was absorbed, but it never returned back to the clouds... eventually you'd have a drought. Well, folks, works the same in economies. Local company pays local employees. Local employees use those dollars to buy local products/services from local companies thereby giving them revenue. For example, mobile phones. Sprint pays me, I use Sprint service, Sprint gets revenue from me. When local companies pay foreign workers, the money (like the rain) becomes a 1 way process... the dollars flow out, money is never reinvested in the companies... hence a economic drought. If Sprint lays off a local worker and pumps those dollars to India, who's gonna buy their product here in America? The worker that just got laid off now has to cancel his Sprint phone because he can't afford it anymore. And, unless Sprint's got a presence in India, those dollars are reinvested in some other company in India.

I should say this... I appear to be rather "anti-outsourcing" and in truth it is sad to see the death (or near fatality) of my profession plus all the people thrown into hard times because their profession went belly-up. But, at the same time, I can't say I blame the CIO's too much either... I understand their point of view... to them, IT is just a toaster... they push a button and it works... so, why pay $40 for a toaster when they can get one for $10. I guess the ultimate culprit is our own affluence... the great imbalance of wealth in the world. You have the US which is loaded w/money, then you have the rest of world that is comparatively poor. It makes sense money will flow to poorer areas where you can get "more bang for the buck". How many ppl vacation in Cancun because its dirt cheap? Same w/producing products... "where can I manufacture dirt cheap?". Now, when the wealth equalizes out... then we'll all be on the same footing... there will be no advantage due "cheapness". But, I suspect equalization of wealth won't happen in my life time... and if it does, I'm concerned to see what the state of America will be.

So, you've decided to bail on doing IT because its being outsourced... gonna be an engineer or architect... ahhhh, no. The jobs that will survive outsourcing are the ones that are close contact services professions such as police, medicine, fire dept, etc. Stuff that requires 1-on-1 interaction. Or, if you work in the gov doing IT or whatever, then you'll be ok. Professions that produce intellectual products (building designs, machine schematics, programs) can easily be manufactured by someone else far away for alot less.

The other part that interests me in all this is what is the gov going to do for taxes when the middle class is decimated because all those white collar workers (engineers, architects, accountants, programmers, etc) can't find a job? Wonder, will taxes sky rocket to make up the deficit?

2003-09-15T17:25:00.000-05:00

There's no loyalty...Corporations often whine nowdays that there's no employee loyalty. These are the same companies that will outsource you or fire you at the drop of a hat if it boosts revenue and pads their salaries by a few more million. Funny they should whine about loyalty when they have none.

2003-09-15T16:39:00.000-05:00

CEO's: modern day pirates, sailing the corporate seas...Next time your out cruising the net, check the news on CEO compensation and "dismissal" packages. It will truly blow you away. We're talking multi-million dollar signing bonues, salaries, and dismissal packages... Sprint's CEO got a $14.5 million dollary signing bonus and paid their former CEO's $60 million in dismissal packages. HP just recently bought 2 new executive jets at $30 million each. Corporations whine about how much money they spend then piss it away on toys or exhorbident CEO salaries. Assuming $60,000/yr for a worker, that $60 million Sprint pissed away could have employed a 1000 workers for a year. And, think how much of that money would've have been pumped back into the local economy for food, cars, homes, etc. Instead, its simply lined the silk purse of some already over-bloated multi-milionaire CEO's. Outsourcing isn't saving the company, its padding the bank account of the executives.

2003-09-15T12:26:00.000-05:00

Article: "The Hidden Costs of Offshore Outsourcing" ... Got this link off of slashdot. Talks about the dangers of outsourcing. Very informative.
see link here

2003-09-15T11:44:00.000-05:00

Sprint: Company of the damned... Sprint has been afflicted w/2 cancers: IBM and EDS. Basically, Sprint is outsourcing everything it can to IBM and EDS. The rough numbers are... 5% will be retained, 30% will be converted to IBM or EDS, and the rest (65%) will be "displaced" aka fired aka let go aka whatever euphenism you choose. 65% of Sprint's IT force dumped into a small market (Kansas City) to find a job.

It was really funny to sit there and listen to the CIO and his IBM/EDS henchment spew heaping huge mounds of bullsh#t. Nothing to worry about... they'll provide career workshops, resume writing help, placement assistance. Now is a great time to pull together and really help make this transition smooth and successful... no, you shouldn't look for a job, stay and transition you work then we'll fire you.

Sprint really has become the company of the damned... the walking dead.

2003-09-12T11:26:00.000-05:00

Joke: Irish Pride... Got this from Greg up in DC. Pretty funny.

An Englishman, a Scotsman, and an Irishman are sitting in an airport bar enjoying a beer.

The Englishman says, "This is nice, but back home we have a bar where they bring you every fifth pint free on the house."

The Scotsman says, "That's nothing. Back home where I come from we have a bar where they bring you every third pint free on the house and a free shot of whiskey to boot!"

The Irishman pipes up and says, "Well, back home where I come from we have a bar where every drink is free from the moment you walk in the door, and after you've had your fill they take you upstairs and see that you get laid!"

The Englishman scoffs and says, "You're making that up."

The Irishman says, "No, I swear it's true!"

The Scotsman says, "And you've been to this bar?"

And the Irishman says, "Well, not me personally but my sister goes all the time!"

2003-09-12T10:17:00.000-05:00

Isophone... sensory deprivation phone call... Hmm... got this link of slashdot. Someone came up with a phone designed to block out all other distracting sensory information. Oh by the way, the phone is a helmet that fits on your head and you float in a pool. I'm thinkin if you're floating in a pool w/a helmet on your head, I'm bettin there aren't going to be too many other things around to distract you in the first place.
see link here

2003-09-12T10:09:00.000-05:00

Oh, the irony... India losing outsourcing to Romania... Saw this in Zdnet. Here's some quotes:

"not only is the cost of using and providing IT services in Romania much cheaper than in India, but the country is also home to an abundance of well-educated and highly skilled workers who have a better understanding of Western European culture "

"there is a view that India is getting more expensive"

see link here

2003-09-08T15:25:00.000-05:00

Movin' to St Louie... Well, its official (pending background checks)... I've accepted a new position in St Louis, MO. It starts on 9/29. I'll be finishing my existing contract which ends on 9/26. Basically, I'll be doing the same stuff now... unix, c, etc... plus web stuff too (javascript, etc). Its a small IT shop... so the focus will be on getting stuff done plus I'll get to do alot of things. Its a good move, although it is sad to move away from friends and family.

2003-08-26T17:49:00.000-05:00

UK Gov: Could they get any more invasive... Think privacy raping is getting bad in America. Check out what they're planning doing in the UK. They want to put spycams in everyone's car and send you a fine everytime you do something wrong... speed, use the wrong lane, etc.
see article here

2003-08-26T15:29:00.000-05:00

Wireless nirvana... Finally went ahead and hooked up wireless last night on my lan at home. Wow! I didn't realize how awesome it was til after I cruised around the apartment w/my laptop. The rest of my lan is still wired (not much point in going wireless on PC's that don't ever move and that are in the same room), but the laptop is wireless. Besides cost, one of the reasons I resisted going wireless was security. Its incredibly hard to break into a wired lan, but you basically have to break thru the firewall router and somehow create non-routeable IP packets for the private lan. Whereas with wireless, you can directly get on someone's private lan just be sitting outside their home. But, you can lockdown a wireless lan by filtering by MAC address and using WEP keys... very secure. So, all is good in the land of plenty.

2003-08-26T15:23:00.000-05:00

Win200 Server++... errr... what?! ... I think my brain is getting confused. I'm currently working thru 2 technical books... Win2000 Server and C++. Well, see how that goes.

2003-08-26T14:34:00.000-05:00

KC Star Article: Offshoring CEO's...Friend sent this to me. Funny, but true.

Why not offshore the CEOs?

By ERIC PALMER

Columnist

8/26/2003

Companies in the last three years have ratcheted down expenses like never before. They had to.

The U.S. economy was exhausted, depressing sales. Competition grew more intense from lower-cost products from around the world, making it difficult to raise prices.

But one line item that continues to creep up, despite valorous efforts of management to get costs under control, is chief executive compensation.

The horror show of corporate scandals -- Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, Westar, Aquila and others -- elicited howls for cutting back on how much we pay the top dogs. And executives and their boards have tried hard to kill the nasty habit of paying chief executives more than they are worth.

But overly generous compensation for chief executives is like a zombie. It just keeps springing back to life.

The AFL-CIO Web site Paywatch.com, citing The New York Times, says that CEO compensation in 2002 came down an average of 20 percent, mostly as a result of fewer stock options for the biggest bosses. But the majority of chief executives saw their compensation in 2002 go up 6 percent, to $8.53 million, when measured by median pay packages.

What is to be done?

I have a proposal.

It is time to offshore the CEO role.

Offshoring is the practice of firing workers in the United States and then giving their jobs to people in countries who will do them for far less money. Unions have been fighting this method of eliminating domestic manufacturing jobs for years.

For example, VF Corp. closed a jeans manufacturing plant in Lebanon, Mo., in January, moving its 750 jobs to Latin American countries. It can pay workers there $1.25 an hour, instead of $7 to $20 an hour it paid the workers in Lebanon.

We have been telling folks who are losing jobs to buck up, learn a new skill. Their jobs have been eliminated, but they can buy the same products they used to make for less money, which is important, since many now are probably earning less money.

Of course, some of them could have taken the advice, gone back to school and learned programming jobs, which would pay much more.

The only problem is that technology companies, citing the need to cut costs, now are "offshoring" software jobs. They are hiring software developers in China and India where, lo and behold, there are smart people willing to work for far less than software developers here.

Sprint is looking at doing this with hundreds of jobs. IBM has been in the news because it is adding thousands of jobs overseas rather than filling the jobs here.

There is no doubt you can save serious money as a company by moving jobs to countries where the pay scale is a tenth or less of what Americans earn.

Indeed, the further up the pecking order you go, the more money that can be saved. If a programmer in India makes $10,000, think how much Sprint or IBM or other companies can save, even if they are paying a contractor twice that amount for each job.

Which leads us to executive compensation. Top executives in companies outside the U.S. generally receive far less compensation than their counterparts here.

The argument is often made that U.S. execs deserve more because the companies they manage are larger. But Professor Kevin Murphy at the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California says that when you factor in size, the big kahunas at U.S. companies are still more richly compensated.

So what do we get if we offshore executives? Consider IBM.

Samuel Palmisano, chairman, president and chief executive of IBM, received $25.4 million in compensation last year when his $18.4 million in stock option grants were figured in.

Think if you could find a replacement in India, just as smart, who would do the job for $2 million. Wow. With just one position, IBM has hacked away more than $23 million in expenses.

Now for a company with 315,000 employees, sales of $81.2 billion and earnings of $3.6 billion, $23 million may not seem like much. But if you offshored the entire upper management group, it would mean some real money.

If you can find thousands of qualified software developers in Asia, you can certainly find a dozen qualified executives. There are large, successful companies in less prosperous countries that compete in world markets. They have found the executive depth they need.

Shyam Kamath, who teaches computer technology at California State University in Hayward and is a native of India, said there are plenty of qualified executives in India who could run U.S. companies. They are making 20 percent of what U.S. executives get.

The technology in India right now might not be quite sophisticated enough to manage a U.S.-based company from there, but it soon will be. Kamath didn't find the idea of outsourcing CEO jobs far-fetched at all.

One of the most appealing elements of this concept is that with just a 1,000 offshore executives, we have cut executive compensation for all the largest companies in the U.S. That should make shareholders happy.

It might be a bit of an oddball idea, but I know top management and their boards are struggling to keep executive compensation in check. They need all the help they can get.

Even from Asia.

--

Entire Article:

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/business/6588014.htm

2003-08-22T17:15:00.000-05:00

Quote of the day: "Profanity is the 1 language that all programmers understand" -- Anonymous

2003-08-20T15:01:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure I can drive... I've never driven a car in a job. Or, been hired to drive a car. And, since "work" seems to be the only valid litmus of whether your competent, I'm not sure I can really drive one. Despite the face I've drove for 18 yrs, had less than 5 accidents EVER, 0 tickets, and have spent most of my life living in congest major metropolis. But, still ... there's no deny the wisdom of "work experience", how hum... guess I'll muddle on as an incompetent driver.

2003-08-20T12:16:00.000-05:00

Life after M$... Saw this on Cnet. They interviewed a guy that switched his company over to open source after being raped by the BSA for being out of compliance w/his software licenses. He's had no loss of productivity or operation. Its a good read.
see link here

2003-08-19T18:29:00.000-05:00

"Unsafe at any speed"... A friend sent this to me. He wrote this to help educate non-computer-savvy family members (and possibly headoff fixing pc probs). Its very excellent article on how (software and practices) protect your computer from probs.

Creating a Safe Computing Environment

Unsafe at any speed!

Unsafe computing is defined as any action that is taking place on your computer without your knowledge or permission. Just using a typical PC with Microsoft Windows, Internet Explorer, Outlook and Office can expose you an unprecedented level of these types of programs or “data leaks”. The root cause of the problem is the lack of discipline on Microsoft's part in their data file formats. Their data file formats often allow executable code to be embedded into a data file. This means that Microsoft data file formats cannot be trusted to be data only and opens the door to abuse later.

This isn't a new problem for them either. Even their new products break one of the oldest laws of computing. Older file formats defined by others are safe. For example, opening a *.jpg file can be done in confidence because the file format doesn't contain executable code. The actions being performed are therefore well known because you know that the only process happening is the displaying of the picture. Likewise when you get a *.jpg as an email attachment, you can open it with the without the fear of there being a Trojan horse inside that might “do something” to your computer. It is precisely due to the fact that Microsoft's file formats can contain executable code that makes running their products unsafe at any speed.

So the next time you get a virus—don't curse your computer, send a bill to Microsoft because they purposely created the problem that you have to clean up in the first place. There would be no need to run anti virus software if their products weren't so dangerous. The real irony is that Microsoft is now planning to enter the anti virus space. So instead of fixing the problem, they'll sell you service contracts for virus pattern file updates to detect an ever growing number of Trojans that will be putting you and your business at risk.

Always run anti-virus software and keep it currently by downloading the latest pattern file updates at least once a week. I recommend Norton Anti-virus due to it's maturity and the frequency of updates. Download Spybot (free download from http://security.kolla.de/news.php?lang=en) and run it. This program will search your system for this spyware and remove it for you. There is also an Immunize option that allow you to close known back doors in your system. In particular, there's a drive-by-download killer that is particularly useful.

So remember, always practice “Safe PC”. I will now enumerate all the ways that you can get infected and suggest options for dealing with each one.

MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) is a breading ground for viruses and information theft. Consider switching to a safe substitute like OpenOffice.

· 94% of all computer viruses come in the form of auto-executing macros in MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. Opening any one of these three files from an email can infect your computer. Once infected, every new document created will have the infection. This happens because the default “blank” document that is used to create any new file is infected. This file is called normal.dot. At a minimum you should disable auto-executing macros or at least set the option to prompt you before running them. You can get more information about viruses at www.sarc.com

· MS Office stores hidden data in your files that you don't see when viewing or editing the document. This includes the change history, the people that edited the file and the dates that they made the changes, etc. This can be very damaging from many perspectives and can include unexpected meta data from portions of the disk that weren't written over when the file was created. For more information see this article on the BBC News site: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3154479.stm

· From the document: “Computer researcher Simon Byers has conducted a survey of Word documents available on the net and found that many of them contain sensitive information. He gathered about 100,000 Word documents from sites on the web and every single one of them had hidden information. In a research paper about the work Mr Byers wrote that about half the documents gathered had up to 50 hidden words, a third up to 500 words hidden and 10% had more than 500 words concealed within them. The hidden text revealed the names of document authors, their relationship to each other and earlier versions of documents. Occasionally it revealed very personal information such as social security numbers that are beloved of criminals who specialize in identity theft. Also available was useful information about the internal network the document traveled through, which could be useful to anyone looking for a route into a network. Mr Byers wrote that the problem of leaky Word documents is pervasive and wrote that anyone worried about losing personal information might want to consider using a different word processing program. “

· When sending out a document, consider a safe file format like PDF. This is a read-only format that is cross platform so the recipient doesn't have to have the same software that you used to create it to view or print it. They cannot edit it either as this is a read-only format. Someone with a Macintosh for example, would be able to open, view and print your document in the same formatting that you created it in regardless of the software that they use. You don't have to worry about sending out unintentional information which is why the IRS publishes it's tax forms in this format. Alternatively, you can cut/paste the document directly into your email and avoid attaching a file altogether.

· Fortunately, there is a good alternative to running MS Office. You can download a free substitute called OpenOffice at www.openoffice.org This is an open source project that is cross platform and runs on Windows, Macintosh, Linux and others. This software provides work alike equivalents to MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint. They also through in a Drawing program for good measure. They have created an open document file format that is used by default. You can set the default file save format to MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint so that any new documents that you create will automatically save to these formats. This is safe with OpenOffice because although the auto-execute macros are preserved when the document is edited—they aren't executed. Saving the document back will save the embedded macros but you can open these files with confidence knowing that OpenOffice won't run this potentially dangerous code. You can set OpenOffice to be the default application for *.doc, *.xls, *.ppt files by right clicking on a file with this extension and selecting the “Open With” and then “Choose Program”. Scroll down the list of programs and select OpenOffice. Click the check box for “Always use this program to open these files”. This will allow you to leave MS Office installed in case you run into a need for it but will set OpenOffice as the default program for these types of data files. This program has a button on the tool bar to export the document to a PDF file. This is a good option to send out a resume or other legal documents to someone via email.

· Vendor lock-in. Because Microsoft doesn't document their file formats for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc., they hold the keys to your data. You have to use their software to open, view, edit or print any document created. This is partially why the discovery of meta data is somewhat new and the potential exists for other security related issues. Microsoft is going toward an annual subscription software licensing model which will require you to activate your software annually every year to continue using it. This threatens the data that you've spent the last 15 years creating and foreign governments in particular have become very nervous about being so beholden to a foreign company for their public documents. China recently declared that all public documentation was to be stored in public documented file formats and they are using a derivative of OpenOffice and it's native file formats for their document storage. I expect other governments to follow suit. Also keep in mind that MS Office isn't cross platform meaning that not only do you have to use their software but you also have to be running it on their OS, namely MS Windows. This lock-in allows them to hold a gun to your head and demand what they will and has served to cement their position on the desktop. There are good alternatives including the Apple Macintosh that are threatened by Microsoft's continued threats to drop MS Office support for that platform. So to a large extent, OpenOffice helps restore competition in the computer industry far beyond just Office software. It comes down to who owns your data. Are you handing the keys to your data vault to someone else?

MS Outlook (Including Outlook Express) hazards. Consider safe email software like Mozilla Thunderbird.

· Email can be sent to you in HTML format. This is the same page layout language used by web sites and, although it provides nice functionality, it can also include embedded executable code like Java, VB Script, etc. Additionally, they can also embed links to a web site for any graphics that it may contain rather than including these with the email. These links can contain your email address that is sent to this remote web site. Spam companies use this trick to verify their email addresses. Just viewing the Spam email can update the Spammer's email address list and cause you to get even more. If you must use MS Outlook or MS Outlook Express, turn off the Preview Pane. With the Preview Pane open, this potentially harmful email is automatically opened when you highlight the subject header in the top window.

· If you receive an email that you're weren't expecting or from someone you don't recognize—delete it without opening it.

· If you using the full MS Outlook email client—you can setup a rule for all incoming mail that checks the sender's email address. If the address is in your address book, then they are a known sender otherwise you can have the email deleted or sent to a Spam folder. This requires that you add someone to your address book prior to getting an email from them. The other problem is that people occasionally change their email addresses and someone sending you an email from a new account to inform you of their new address may get deleted or sent to your Spam folder automatically so that you miss the update. Still it cuts down on Spam and possible Trojan or virus attacks substantially.

· Never click on a link in an email to remove your email address from their mailing list. This only confirms your email address as being a good one and will get you put on everyone's mailing list.

· Be very careful about opening an attachment even if it comes from someone your trust. Certain known good data-only data files are *.jpg, *.gif, *.bmp (pictures). MS Office files like *.doc, *.xls, *.ppt should only be opened if your running OpenOffice and it is set as your default application for these file types so that opening them will open them with OpenOffice instead of MS Office (Word, Excel or PowerPoint). Even better if you can live without it--uninstall MS Office. Never open attachments with the following file extensions: ade, adp, bas, bat, ceo, chm, cmd, com, cpl, crt, exe, hlp, hta, inf, ins, isp, js, jse, lnk, mde, msc, msi, msp, mst, pcd, pif, reg, scr, sct, shs, url, vb, vbe, wsc, wsf, vbs.

· Many new viruses spread themselves by sending themselves to everyone in your address book. There isn't much you can do about this unless you're willing to use a different email program.

· Don't fall victim to the chain letter viruses. These are spread manually by well intentioned people to everyone they care about because the email contains something that sounds legit. If you get a message and want to check to see if it is a prank—go to www.sarc.com and perform a search. It's embarrassing later to have to recall the letter to all your friends telling them to ignore it because it's a scam.

· Consider using Mozilla Thunderbird. You can download this email client from www.mozilla.org. This program will “clean” incoming HTML formatted emails by removing all references to local computer resources, removing email addresses in the image references, removing all executable code like Java and VB Script, etc. With this program you can use the Preview Pane with confidence that the email won't be doing anything to your computer. There are also options to disable downloading of images from remote web sites which I would recommend turning on.

MS Internet Explorer is a gateway for hackers, worms, Trojans, and Spyware.

· Nothing is more dangerous than MS Internet Explorer. There are so many opportunities to be infected with this program. Many Trojans can enter your system without your knowledge and not be flagged by any anti-virus software. These are generally called Spyware and the usual form of infection takes place while browsing the Internet with Internet Explorer. Malicious web sites can download an executable to your Temporary Internet Files folder and launch it in the background without your knowledge. This is called “drive-by-downloads”. They then install themselves on your system and monitor your web site activity or do other things. Some of them send the addresses in your address book to various web sites for future spamming. So you end up putting your friends on spam lists as well. I recommend downloading Spybot (free download from http://security.kolla.de/news.php?lang=en) and running it. This program will search your system for this spyware and remove it for you. There is also an Immunize option that allow you to close known back doors in your system. In particular, there's a drive-by-download killer that is particularly useful.

· Popup's, Popunders and spoofed link references aren't just annoying; they are all sources of potential infection of spyware, Trojans or viruses. If this is your only browser or it's set to be the default—other programs opening HTML may use Internet Explorer to display it. So indirectly, just having Internet Explorer installed on your system opens you up to these types of attacks. When you receive an email in Outlook that is in HTML format for example, Outlook opens Internet Explorer to display the contents of the email. You don't notice it because the contents are opened in the email window and there are no visible outward signs that Internet Explorer was involved at all.

· Consider using Mozilla Firebird browser and making it your default browser. You can still leave Internet Explorer installed for those rare occasions where you want to use some web site that is hard coded to work only with it. By making Mozilla Firebird your default browser, other programs like Outlook that use the browser for formatting will use this browser instead. Mozilla Firebird is a free download that you can get from www.mozilla.org and blocks Popups, Pupunders and it's default settings eliminate as many annoyances as possible. Go here: http://www.mozilla.org/products/firebird/why/ and read the section on Popup Blocking and Annoyance Eliminator for a good explanation of why you should use this browser.

Alternatives to Microsoft Software

If you're really interested in a truly bullet proof computing environment; your best bet is to look to Linux. The reason this is so safe is because even if a Trojan manages to get on your computer; it cannot execute under Linux. The executable file format as well as other critical system libraries for Windows are not present on a Linux system. You can use Redhat 8.0 or above or SuSE 7.3 and above depending on your preference. Both of these will serve you well. They both come with Mozilla for web browsing, an Outlook work alike called Evolution (go to http://www.ximian.com/products/evolution/screenshots.html to see what it looks like). OpenOffice is also included which includes compatible programs similar to Word, Excel and PowerPoint. For more pictures check out http://www.ximian.com/products/desktop/screenshots.html

2003-08-19T13:50:00.000-05:00

The fallacy of self-education... In the work force, being a self-educating person (ie learning Java, C++) is a good thing and a common selling point in interviews... ie its a plus. But, the reality is... unless you're doing it for yourself (ie for sheer enjoyment), its a waste of time.
"Use it at work"... If you're not currently using it, you probably won't have any opportunities to use it. And, by the time a chance to use it does happen, odds are you'll have forgotten it. Besides, more than likely they'll tap the lead programmer to learn/do it. And, if that's not you, you're screwed.
"To get a job"... which is usually immediately squashed w/"no work experience" phrase. Simply put, if you don't have work experience in it (no matter how qualified you are or how humongous the apps are you wrote), it doesn't matter... it might as well not even exist on your resume.
So, ultimately, you can't use it work and no one will hire you w/"experience" in it... making learning new stuff pretty pointless unless you really want to learn it.

2003-08-18T12:55:00.000-05:00

SCO extortion expands... Well, read a article a friend forwarded. Basically, SCO is saying they've made a list of servers running linux and "will not hestitate" to drag ppl into court that refuse to pay for a UnixWare license. They're like the "North Korea" of computing.
see link here

2003-08-17T22:48:00.000-05:00

My FFL draft results... Last Wed, we had our FFL draft. Used yahoo... Yahoo is fairly nice, could use some improvements on the search box. Anyways... here's the result of my draft:
round 1: LaDainian Tomlinson, RB - Chargers
round 2: Daunte Culpeper, QB - Vikings
round 3: Tiki Barber, RB - Giants
round 4: David Boston, WR - Chargers
round 5: Amani Toomer, WR - Giants
round 6: Derrick Mason, WR - Titans
round 7: Sebastian Janikowski, K - Raiders
round 8: Chad Johnson, WR - Bengals
round 9: Marty Booker, WR - Bears
round 10: Tom Brady, QB - Patriots
round 11: Martin Grammatica, K - Buccaneers
round 12: Dre' Bly, Def Back - Lions
round 13: Mike Alstott, RB - Buccaneers
round 14: Charles Rogers, WR - Lions
round 15: Jimmy Williams, Def Back - 49er's
round 16: Darrick Vaughn, Def Back - Texans
round 17: Hakim "Its a Trap" Akbar, Def Line - Rams

2003-08-17T22:47:00.000-05:00

A hero: Grandfather drowns after rescuing grandson... I read this and all I could think was "this man was a hero". And, I wanted to honor his sacrifice by putting here.
see link here

2003-08-17T19:52:00.000-05:00

News site: Iraq Today... Added this to my links. An Iraqi-American journalist has returned to Baghdad and created this website. It looks pretty good.

2003-08-17T19:50:00.000-05:00

Saddam cloaked himself in Arabism... There's a fascinating insightful article I read on Saddam used money to buy popularity in the Arab street and thereby a free pass to abuse his own country.
see link here

2003-08-14T22:54:00.000-05:00

The contingency plan... Well, as I did dishes tonight contemplating what all I needed to do to really pursue another job in earnest... it occurred to me what my contingency plan is. If I can find a job in this sh#tass job market, I'm moving back in w/mom and dad. Last time I was looking for work, I spent 6 months living on unemployment, credit, and savings... and that was really stupid... I burned myself out of cash, racked up credit debt.... granted, I stayed in KC instead of living w/mom and dad in a small KS farm town out in the middle of nowhere... but, wasn't really a smart idea. Don't get me wrong, love my mom and dad dearly... but the "live w/mom and dad" thing ended when I left for college. So.... the contignency plan is... my contract ends on 9/26... I'll pay 1 more months of rent... if no job, move back home w/parents at end of Oct... boredom will arrive immediately thereafter... followed by frustration, depression, anxiety, and hopelessness... Yeeeeee Haaaawwwwww! Sounds like a good time. "Future is so bright... gotta wear night vision googles".

2003-08-14T11:53:00.000-05:00

Top 18 Ways To Annoy Other People...
1. Leave the copy machine set to reduce 150%, dark, 17 inch paper, 99 copies.
2. In the memo field of all of your checks, write "for sensual massage".
3. Specify that your drive-through order is "to go".
4. Insist on keeping your car windshield wipers running in all weather conditions "to keep them tuned up".
5. Reply to everything someone says with "that's what YOU think".
6. Practice making fax and modem noises.
7. Highlight irrelevant information in scientific papers and "cc" them to your boss.
8. Finish all your sentences with the words "in accordance with prophecy".
9. Signal that a conversation is over by clamping your hands over your ears.
10. Adjust the tint on your TV so that all the people are green and insist to others that you "like it that way".
11. Repeat the following conversation a dozen times: "Do you hear that?" "What?" "Never mind, it's gone now."
12. As much as possible, skip rather than walk.
13. Ask people what gender they are.
14. While making presentations, occasionally bob your head like a parakeet.
15. Sit in your front yard pointing a hair dryer at passing cars to see if they slow down.
16. Sing along at the opera.
17. Go to a poetry recital and ask why each poem doesn't rhyme.
18. Ask your co-workers mysterious questions and then scribble their answers in a notebook. Mutter something about "psychological profiles".

2003-08-14T11:46:00.000-05:00

Rejected Dr. Seuss Books...
1. The Cat in the Blender
2. Herbert the Pervert Likes Sherbet
3. Fox in Detox
4. Who Shat in the Hat
5. Horton Hires a Ho
6. The Flesh-Eating Lorax
7. How the Grinch Stole Columbus Day
8. Your Colon Can Moo-Can You?
9. Zippy the Rabid Gerbil
10. One Bitch, Two Bitch, Dead Bitch, Blue Bitch
11. Marvin K. Mooney, Get the Fuck Out
12. Are You My Proctologist?
13. Yentil the Lentil
14. My Pocket Rocket Needs A Socket
15. Aunts in My Pants
16. Hop on Cop
17. Green Eggs & The Government Cheese
18. I'm Mr. Blue...Who The Fuck are You
19. Oh, the Places You'll Scratch and Sniff!
20. Horton Fakes an Orgasm
21. The Grinch's Ten Inches

2003-08-12T13:11:00.000-05:00

PPI (Primate Programming Inc)... "Why pay a homosapien when you can pay a primate pennies per hour! With 98% the same DNA as a human, its almost the same thing and their cheap cheap cheap." Got this link in an email. Plus, I added a link (w/image) to link list.
See link here

2003-08-12T00:08:00.000-05:00

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly...
Good: Your hubby and you agree, no more kids
Bad: You can't find your birth control pills
Ugly: Your daughter borrowed them

Good: Your son studies a lot in his room
Bad: You find several porn movies hidden there
Ugly: You're in them

Good: Your husband understands fashion
Bad: He's a cross dresser
Ugly: He looks better than you

Good: Your son's finally maturing
Bad: He's involved with the woman next door
Ugly: So are you

Good: You give the birds and bees talk to your daughter
Bad: She keeps interrupting
Ugly: With corrections

Good: Your wife's not talking to you
Bad: She wants a divorce
Ugly: She's a lawyer

Good: The postman's early
Bad: He's wearing fatigues and carrying an AK47
Ugly: You gave him nothing for Christmas

2003-08-11T15:22:00.000-05:00

News: US to offshore senators... After doing a cost analysis, it has been determined that US Senators will be offshored to India. The avg senator makes $150k per year while an Indian worker costs $10k/yr. The large pool of uneducated womanizing liars w/the skill set to say "yay" or "nay" combined w/low wage costs and mature video conferencing have made this an ideal option. In addition, gov officies, facilities (cafeteria, bars, strip clubs), and secret service will no longer be needed and can be shutdown thereby reducing costs. Its great! True, US laws and way of life will be totally in the hands of a foreign power to manipulate, distort, destroy, and could collapse this country... but the cost savings make this a good strategic choice.

2003-08-11T12:46:00.000-05:00

L-1 Visa's: just when exporting jobs couldn't get worse... Saw this on Zdnet. Kind of depressing. "L-1" visas allow corporations to import as many foreign workers as they want, pay them their home country wage, and they can stay for up to 7 yrs. So basically, you really don't have to export jobs anymore, you can import them over here and still pay them cheap... and, you can import as much as you want.
see article here

2003-08-11T12:40:00.001-05:00

"Natural Killers - Turning the tide of battle"... I ponged thru a blog, a website, and eventually wound up at an article w/this title. VERY fascinating stuff. It was an article written by Major Pierson in 1999 for the military review. It talks about how most ppl are not natural killers... they have to be conditioned into it. In combat, on avg 70% don't fire their weapon. Yet, there's a small percentage (about 4%) term "natural killers" that has a "predisposition to kill" and "put into the right situation, they will kill the enemy aggressively and without remorse". They are key military assets that put in the right situation can turn the tide of battle. The article is a fascinating exploration of "natural killers", their psychology, and use on the battlefield.
see link here

2003-08-07T18:25:00.000-05:00

The Economics of spam... Saw this on news site (CNN or Wired) and at Coremud's site. Wonder why were getting flooded w/spam? Why do we get flooded w/"University degrees", "Penis enlargement", "Septic tank fix", etc etc? Are these ppl just jerks or what? The answer is that ppl are the reason why ppl are getting flooded by spam. What do I mean?

In a 4-week period, a spammer received 6,000 orders for penis enlargement pills. Each order on avg was for 2 bottles, each bottle is $50. So, lets do the math:
6,000 orders x 2 bottles per order x $50 per bottle = $600,000
Now, lets subtract costs.... It costs him $5 per bottle. And, I'm going to assume $30,000 per mont in operating expenses (office space, shipment costs, etc)
bottle cost=6,000 orders x 2 bottles per order x $5 per bottle = $60,000
total cost = bottle cost + operating expenses = $60,000 + $30,000 = $90,000
So, net profit is...
$600,000 revenue - $90,000 costs = $510,000 net profit

So, in a 4 week time, the spammer made $510,000 net (estimated). The reason we are getting spammed is because ppl are buying this stuff. Oh by the way, he's a 19 yr old high school drop out.

2003-08-05T10:48:00.000-05:00

Assault on free speech: man jailed for website... Man was jailed by a federal judge for publishing an anarchist website w/links to bomb building sites. Yes, it is bad when ppl are harmed. But, the man has committed no crime... he has not harmed anyone. Simply, he has expressed himself (albeit in a terrible way)... and, that is not a crime. More alarming is that this sets the precedent (or builds upon existing precedents) for jailing ppl for what the say or publish... characteristics of a police state.
See link here

If you wanna know why this is bad, please read my "Censorship" essay on my essay page.

2003-08-04T16:00:00.000-05:00

Bulk Mail (ie Spam) Folder: 280 emails... WOOT! Its a new record. Its probably been about 10 days since I last checked that email. Lets see... there's telemarketers, door-to-door salesmen, spammers, and bulk mailings. Since when did it become "ok" to be so d#mn invasive in ppl's lives... to get in their face (in form or another) and "pump your product"... err, ok... that sounded dirty... "promote your product". Marketers (in whatever form) are becoming the lowest form of scum on earth.

2003-08-04T12:27:00.000-05:00

Jetisoned from Sprint on 9/26... Well, found out today that's when my current contract ends. And, since they're not renewing (most) contracts, it looks like that's when I'll leave. That could change but I'm not counting on it. Good news... economy is picking up... lets just hope the "wave of jobs" arrives in time for me to surf on it.

2003-08-04T10:57:00.000-05:00

Team outing (Fri): Bowled 119 left handed... Since my right arm is messed up (I'm right handed), had to bowl left handed. And, I've never bowled left handed before. My 2nd, I finished w/119 and almost bowled 3 strikes in the 10th frame. Now... is that awesome or what?

2003-08-03T23:59:00.000-05:00

Helped friend (philosophy professor) get packed... He's moving to Indiana to teach. Went over to his place and helped him load up. Sorry to see him go, but we still have email. And, who knows... maybe I'll run into him again. Good luck Dave!

2003-08-03T23:57:00.000-05:00

KC blogger party... Went to that. It was so so. Although, the "ice cream delivery" guy was pretty funny... great stories. Ran into Arcturus, Rhetorica, and Red Letter again. Very cool. Met Jessy.

2003-08-03T23:52:00.000-05:00

2nd Server: It's Alive! ... 2nd server is up and running. I've installed the software, configured the box, and have data mirroring between the primary server and 2ndary server workin just fine. Ahhh, sweetness... :-) I rock!

2003-08-03T14:54:00.000-05:00

Party at Ft Awesome... Went to party Gimpysoft had. Enjoyed it, it was a good time. Lots of fun ppl there. Pretty laid back, easy going. The food was great! No one went out patio door and plunged 15 ft... that was good. Snickered and gave Ryan grief while he tried to get an mp3 player running on his redhat box... was just playin, not tryin to be mean. Mmmm... that's it.

2003-08-01T10:44:00.000-05:00

Server reborn... It lives! Got my 2nd replacement hd (which didn't get rained on)... rebuilt the raid mirror... copied my data back to it... and its working now. Guys at hypertech suggested that heat (not power supply) trashed the drives. So, I bolted the covers back on and sealed it up (to create an airflow flowing thru the machine). If drives die again... power supply is next (that's if I have a job and can afford it). Now, all I need to do is finish rebuilding my 2nd server (transfer my equipment to server case, reinstall software). After that, I should have an uber server setup... will look real nice sitting at my parents house when I'm searching for a job. Tech rules!

2003-07-31T15:46:00.000-05:00

"exporting jobs" writing campaign... Yes, I plan to address this matter. I'll buy a 10' x 10' log cabin up in Montana... isolate myself from family and friends (which is well under way)... buys lots of explosives (for medicinal purposes of course), surgical gloves, lots of envelopes, a hooded jacket and sunglasses... and vigorously write my representatives and anyone else who particularly pissed me off at one time. And, when I get bored, run naked thru the woods, pumping my arms up and down, and yelling gibberish and obscenities.

2003-07-31T14:19:00.000-05:00

HD delivery: good news/bad news... Good news: UPS tracking says they delivered my other replacement HD... and that its on my "porch". Bad news: I was was just outside and its about to rain like a mutha... lets hope he placed it somewhere somewhat dry. Btw... given my previous luck, is it any wonder this is happening.... (thinks to self that a direct lightning strike on the box wouldn't surprise him either).

2003-07-31T13:16:00.000-05:00

"Why won't you go in!"... That's me during my lunch hour after 20 mins trying to slide my removable hard drive tray into my server. It was unbelievable! I swapped racks, trays... I'd remove the hd and then slide in an empty tray and it'd work! Then, put the hd back in and it wouldn't! I started ramming the stupid thing in hard as my angst grew. I finally get my hard drives back in but what a struggle. See... its this... stuff like this that happens when I work on stuff... stuff that shouldn't go wrong or shouldn't happen, does... its no wonder I hate working on the stupid things. What new "OMG, I never thought that'd happen..." surprise lurks around the corner.

2003-07-31T10:08:00.000-05:00

George Carlin on prostitution... I heard this argument on one of his cd's... its really funny... and you know what, kind of makes sense.
"F#cking is legal. Selling is legal. Why is it illegal to sell something that's perfectly legal to give away. I do NOT follow that logic."

2003-07-31T10:05:00.000-05:00

Vendor (not WD) gave me wrong HD's... Well, I did some checking on what drives I'd originally reported to WD for replacement. I thought it was strange WD would send me the wrong drive (since they do this all the time). Turns out they did send me correct drive... prob is... when I first purchased the drives, the vendor sent me the wrong one and I never noticed until now. DOH!

2003-07-31T09:20:00.000-05:00

Computer hell... Well, lets see... My 3rd drive in my server (200G) has been confirmed dead... I tried it in another machine and it didn't even see it as alive. Got my replacement 120G hd from WD... great! ... but, its the wrong model... doh! So, I've now got to send in the 200G for replacement... plus call WD and find out how to return the wrong hd they sent me. And... I decided I don't like the Antec case I recently bought for the 2nd server (since its not really a server case anyways... plus other stuff), so I bought a new case (server case)... so now I'm faced w/gutting the Antec... putting it in the new server case... and then returning the Antec. PLUS... I still have the rest of my life to take care of which has seemingly been piling up on me. -ACK!-

2003-07-29T16:08:00.000-05:00

7-day Cruise ... on The Conquest!!! ... Got this in an email. Hmmm... the foreshadowing is funny. You just know you're gonna get "lucky". Yeah, I'd like to meet some girls on a boat dubbed "The Conquest"... heh. Conquest on the Conquest = Conquest squared ... the power of 2. :-)

2003-07-29T11:30:00.000-05:00

Great sex, no thanx... pfff, I do NOT get that... Oh, this happened a few weeks ago. And, since its over, what the heck, I'll blog it here.

I met a girl about 3 weeks ago... neither of us were interested in a relationship, just "friends w/benefits" (aka hangout & sex... the toad gives that a big webbed-thumbs up!). She's 38, intelligent, cute (redhead), tall (6' 1"), pretty nice shape, and an educated professional (like myself). So, we had dinner. And, frankly, I didn't enjoy her company that much... she was pretty negative and bitchy. At one pt, I committed the unforgivable sin of not knowing who the grp DMB is. But, I'm not one to let something so trivial as personality get in the way of a sexual trist (I'm playing)... so I asked her if she wanted to come back to my place (which she did).

It was 3 hrs of intense horizontal mambo.... wow! We really had incredible sexually chemistry. I've never connected that well with someone before. I'm pretty honest in general and not one to brag, but I KNOW her bell rang at least 10 times. She was a very horny girl. Anyways, it was awesome. We both had a pretty good time.

So, I send her an email the next day. Here's what I wrote:
"I had a WONDERFUL time Sat night *wink*. I walked around with a big pleasant grin on my face. Would
like to see you again (and again and again... hehe). "
Here's the response I got:
"I did too, but I don't think that we have too much in common."
And, that was it... we didn't see each other again.

WHAT?! I do NOT get that! Hmmm... we met for sex, we had great sex... and now its over because we don't have much in common. That makes NO sense. So, we don't hang out, just have great sex... is that so bad? Sounds great to me. Maybe I was wrong... maybe I thought it was great but she didn't... but I gotta believe if someone rings your bell 10 times, I'd think ya be pretty happy. Anways... its over... sucks, but oh well.

2003-07-29T08:58:00.000-05:00

0 visitors? ... If you stop by and read the posts, plz drop like a 1 line, 1 word, whatever. The long list of 0 comments makes it seem like no one stops by.

2003-07-28T12:38:00.000-05:00

Weekend in review... I didn't do much. Sat/Sun was mainly spent building a 2nd (fail-over) server (personal, not work). Currently, my home server is raid mirror boot, raid mirror data, w/scheduled backups to a backup drive. Its virtually "bullet proof" against losing my data (due to drive failure) or having any downtime (since boot is mirrored). Previously, I'd posted that my server crashed. What happened was that I lost both drives in my data mirror. If I hadn't been backing up to another drive, I'd been screwed. Although I have data fault tolerance (ie mirrored drives), I don't really have any fault tolerance (fail over) when it comes to hardware (motherboard, power supply, etc). If any of the hardware failed, the server (which has all my data) would be down for days until I figured out the prob... which would be a prob. So, I decided to build a 2nd server (since I have 90% of the parts already) and mirror my data to the 2nd server. This way, I'm protected against data loss (via mirrored drives) and hardware failure (via 2nd server).

So, anyways, I spent Sat/Sun building a 2nd server. It reminded me of why I don't like building computers. Something ALWAYS goes wrong... some new frustration crops up. I installed the motherboard twice... the atx plate wouldn't line up so had to partially uninstall the motherboard so I could remove the plate... nic cards wouldn't dhcp... spent 20 minutes frustratingly tryin to remove a screw that fell in the case (and I could hear rolling around) but wouldn't come out... the cpu fan caused a metallic buzzing noise because I used to many screws on the motherboard, removing about 2 seemed to cure it... and on and on. Good news, everything seems to be working... and now I'm just in the configuration/install phase of building it.

2003-07-25T13:05:00.000-05:00

Therapist w/big knockers... Well, went to elbow rehab today. 2nd time I've had this therapist. She's 24, 25, 5' 7", very cute, and big knockers (guessin D cup or a really full C)... and, she wears shirts w/a kind of a v-neck aka a bit of cleavage. Very distracting... in fact, kind of stressful because I'm tryin not to oogle at her or look down her shirt when she bends over to write notes. I like the scenery... but she's married and nothin is gonna happen... so the temptation really sucks. Granted, I'd prefer them ultra-desirable rather than so ugly they'd scare paint off a car.

2003-07-24T16:13:00.000-05:00

How to stop poaching... Got problems w/illegal hunting? There's a solution! Randomly exploding game! Purchase hundreds of explosive devices all w/random detonation times and strap them on the local wildlife. Next time that rascally hunter thinks about bagging a deer, he'll think twice. Because you never know what it just might go off. Brought to you by Blam-O.

2003-07-23T07:57:00.000-05:00

Server crash and burn... I'll add more later... but server crashed and burned last night. Although, thanx to my kicka$$ design, I actually managed not to lose all my data. One of the hard drives was making a loud knocking sound... good news, its under warranty... sending drive in today.

2003-07-23T07:52:00.000-05:00

Sister makes Warden, starts new job today... Much congratulations goes out to my Sis who got promoted to Warden last week. She was working as assistant Warden in Panama City FL. Intelligent, charismatic, driven, kind, caring... she deserves that job (and obviously the company did too). And, I know she'll be successful just as she has in the past. Today, she starts he new job as Warden. She'll be administering a facility in Tampa Bay FL. Also, if I find a job down in the Tampa Bay area (which is nice I hear), I can go live w/her and we can hang out. :-)

2003-07-22T22:32:00.000-05:00

Sending warm wishes to Jessy... Recently, I made the unfortuanate mistake of posting an inflammatory feedback Jessy's website on a day when I was feeling bitchy. In general, I believe in making ppl's lives better and happier... not bringing them angst. And, I err'd. I understand my basis for that comment... but it was still wrong for me to post that inflammatory remark. I have in the past and continue now to enjoy her blog. She is a bright, vivacious, fun, caring person who has done alot to better the scene here in KC. She has great qualities to offer the world and I wish her much success.

2003-07-22T22:20:00.000-05:00

Blogging again... Well, I'm blogging again... this time anonymously though... and no, I'm not going to say where. But, I can tell you I'm much more happy. I now blog about EVERYTHING... w/zero concern about who knows me and who reads it. I'll still post here... but my other blog will get most of the attention.

2003-07-16T12:49:00.000-05:00

Pretty much done w/blogging... I've enjoyed blogging for awhile... fun, felt sort of "famous" (when ppl read it). But, its alot of work to just "barf" you life and thoughts out on the page... and its not really that rewarding. Besides, I'm somewhat cloistered in what I can write... since ppl who know me read this blog, I just can puke out on the page whatever I think. I should probably start another blog and remain anonymous... then I could truly just say whatever.

2003-07-10T14:48:00.000-05:00

Hey, what about Cuba? ... Just occured to me... what about Cuba? We invaded Iraq because of WMD's but also because Saddam was a cruel and oppressive. And, because basically after 12 yrs of sanctions, it became blindingly obvious he wasn't going to lose power. Regardless of whether we found WMD's or not, I think we did a good thing... we freed those ppl from such hardships and creating a better world. So, what about Cuba? He's basically an evil tyrant who after like 30 yrs of sanctions, clearly isn't going to be deposed. Why not just go in, bounce him out, and do ourselves (and the Cuban ppl) a favor? Aint like it'd take very long... its in our backyard and its rather tiny.

2003-07-09T16:31:00.000-05:00

Ideal girl (physically that is)... got asked this question... not that it was hard to answer... but what heck, I haven't polluted my blog w/misc garbage in quite awhile... so here it goes...
5'4", blond hair (shoulder length), blue eyes... (yes I know this sounds typical)... light tan, toned, got some muscle (ack, can't stand stick figures) but not muscle bound, big boobs (at least DD if not EE) no implants all natural.
And there you go... now, keep in mind this ideal physically. There is much MUCH more to a meaningful relationship than the body. Actually, I would rate the mind more important... the body is good for bedroom fireworks, but the mind is what really makes things last.

2003-07-09T16:24:00.000-05:00

I'm alive... Well, for all those who have been frantically checking my page and wondering where I've been... I'm back. Ahhh... bunches has happened... guess somewhere along the way I kind of got "blogged" out.

2003-06-23T01:33:00.000-05:00

Essay page: added "Prophet and disciple" story... I added a story I'm rather fond of to my essay page. Its a proverbial story w/a message in it. It reminds me that sometimes losses are a blessing and triumphs a curse. And, that ultimately, you have to have faith that the things happen in your life are for the best even if they don't seem like it.

2003-06-20T23:05:00.000-05:00

Essay page: Added "DUI addendum" and "DUI rebuttal"... I added some additional pieces to my "DUI Law" argument. One is an addendum I wrote after my initial argument against DUI law. The "rebuttal" is a rebuttal my philosophy professor wrote argument. It has valuable points and I added it to be fair and balanced.

2003-06-20T22:38:00.000-05:00

Essay page: Added essay "DUI laws are wrong"... Added an an essay I wrote some time ago that asserts that DUI law (and laws of similar nature) are wrong. Have a read.

2003-06-20T16:00:00.000-05:00

Added essay to "Essays" page... Added a new essay "Free Speech isn't a license for breaking the law" to my essays page. Its a little late since the war is over, but its still got good stuff to say.

2003-06-18T11:39:00.000-05:00

-groan!- Jane Roe wants "Roe vs Wade" overturned... News flash: "Roe vs Wade" is not about her... its about a larger question... just because your name is tatooed on it doesn't make it yours.

Outlawing abortion will stop some, but for those who truly want one, they'll have it regardless. I did the research in college on abortion prior to and post "Roe vs Wade". Prior to legalized abortion, it was awful the things that happened to ppl. If you outlaw it, women will still have it... but it'll be done in unsafe, unclean conditions by untrained ppl resulting in sterility, death, or a host of other results... the good ol' days of coat hangers and backalleys and babies in trash cans. By legalizing it, you give women safe, clean conditions by skilled staff... the women are safe and they can even start families some day.

The true solution to change (ie no abortions) is social awareness/education and developing a social consensus... legislating behavior doesn't work (ie outlawing abortion). Win ppls hearts and minds... then it'll stop. But, they'll always be those that choose to have abortions anyways and there should be appropriate facilities to help those ppl.

Where do I stand on abortion? I've heard convincing arguments on both sides. So, the answer is: I don't know. But, ultimately, I'd never approve legislating behavior... as I said, I don't believe that's the solution to true change. Rather, I'd endorse education and awareness while still trying to help those ppl who aren't persuaded.

2003-06-18T10:19:00.000-05:00

illegal downloads: Sen Hatch favors destroying computers... You know with all the fuss about illegal downloads (songs, software, etc) , you'd think it was the most awful thing in the world (worse than cancer, war, poverty, etc)... and that there's HUGE amount of money lost and ppl are being turned into paupers. I don't have any official data, but I really doubt that much money is lost (compared to the whole) and companies are going broke and ppl are being turned into paupers.

Anyways, Senator Hatch has made some disturbing comments. Article quotes:
"he favors developing new technology to remotely destroy the computers of people who illegally download music from the Internet"
"The senator ... acknowledged Congress would have to enact an exemption for copyright owners from liability for damaging computers"
So, basically he favors nuking your computer and disabling your ability to fight back against ppl who did it no matter how damaging it was.

I don't know even where to start on how stupid and irresponsible this is. What happens if the software is wrong and you don't have anything illegal on your machine? Attackers will leverage this situation to destroy computers by quiety putting illegal stuff on your computer. Data (financials, documents, contacts, calendar, etc) is unique to each person and unreplaceable. Destroying ppls computers (and likely their data) isn't just teaching someone a lesson, its causes huge and severe loss that can't be restored. You know when ppl steal, we send them to jail... we don't cut off their hands. So, lets not start that practice here.

see article here

2003-06-15T01:30:00.000-05:00

Movie Review: "25th Hour"... ("Good", Grade: B)... The movie follows the last 24 hrs of a bust drug dealer (Ed Norton) before he goes to jail. Monty (Ed Norton) reviews his life and his choices and what led him to his end. Pretty good actually. I think Ed Norton does a particular good job selling his char... so does Barry Pepper who really did an excellent job. And, lets not forget Rosario Dawson w/the smokin hot bod and the silver dress that leaves nothin to the imagination.... mmmmm.... delicious... me likey. So, there you go.

2003-06-14T21:11:00.000-05:00

Much love to Mom and Sis... who checked on me and made sure I hadn't croaked... heh. Although I should say, the worse part of the first day was the painkillers... Vicadin. Vicadin did a number on me... made me dizzy, nautious, couldn't focus... had to lay down alot... when I stop takin it... I didn't have much pain and I felt WAY better. Sister took "Lora tabs" for her surgery pain and had similar symptoms... yep, we're related... we both don't like the same narcotics.

2003-06-14T21:07:00.000-05:00

Much thanx to my friends... Much thanx to Mike, Uday, and Divya. Great great friends who helped me out w/the surgery. They dropped me off, picked me up, and stayed w/me much of Thurs to make sure I was okay. If you want to know what the definition of friend is... friend is the person who does these things... picks you up, drops you off, stays w/you... that's what friendship is... its an action, not a sentence. So, I want to thank them for their frienship and count myself lucky. I look forward when I can repay that friendship double. And, I look forward to making more friends and passing on the same to them.

2003-06-14T21:02:00.000-05:00

Movie time as I heal... If you haven't guessed it, its movie time while I heal... although I should note I am typing w/both hands... think that's ok. Talked to the nurse yesterday (Fri)... "so what's deal? when should I move my arm and stuff? I'm suppose to be at work Mon, doing typing and stuff" "Yeah, you can move your arm around, nothing heavy... typing should be ok... bandages can come off after 4 or 5 days" "Well, I don't want to accidentally screw anything up." "Nothing to screw up, all we did make a few incisions and looked inside". Of course I'm paraphrasing, but that's what I remember. Hope it was ok to start typing that day (Fri) because that's what I was doin. Everything feels ok for the most part but I still have some numbness and "bloat" in my arm/hand.

2003-06-14T20:45:00.000-05:00

Movie Review: "The Recruit"... ("Good, sort of", Grade: B-)... Lot of CIA double-speak, shadow games, head fakes, "everything is not what it seems to be". In fact too much of it... there so many "head fakes", it got kind of confusing... that would probably be the biggest knock against it. A few less twists and turns and it'd been better. Actors do a good job. So, it was kind of good movie, sort of.

2003-06-14T18:33:00.000-05:00

Movie Review: "The Animatrix"... ("Good", Grade: B)... Companion piece to "Matrix Reloaded"... part of the whole "Matrix" blitz going on. Its a collection of 9 animation pieces (about 10mins each) about the matrix. Couple of them explain the rise of the machines. Plus, there's bonus material on the making of the animatrix and Japanese Anime in general... pretty cool actually.

2003-06-14T18:29:00.000-05:00

Movie Review: "Tears of the Sun"... ("Ok", Grade: C)... Team of seals are sent to extract a doctor from a missionary. She won't leave her patients behind. Seals can't bring themselves to leave them behind to die... so they escort the doctor and the patients out. W/bad guys in pursuit of course. It was ok. Good idea, the movie just wasn't that inspiring.

2003-06-11T23:09:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow (Thu) is the surgery... Not really worried. Its a fairly simple procedure. But, still I wondered about the possibility I could croak... during surgery its possible... blood clot hits the brain... stroke out for some reason... or bad reaction to anesthesia. It'd be ok. I believe there is a God... and, I'd simply be leaving the earth... going to see God. Actually, the worse part I thought would be the horrible impact it would have on my family... my parents, my sister... terrible grief to go through... and that has made me misty when I really thought about it. Anyways... elbow surgery incredibly safe... do it all the time w/o incident... so, I'm not worried.