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March 31, 2003

Rule of Law

I finally read the editorial I've been expecting to read since the war began (sorry, no link, as it was in the print edition of the Post Gazette). The US military has been talking a lot lately of how the Iraqis are mistreating prisoners of war, and how they are dressing like civilians and waving a white flag then firing on US troops. The editorial asks why the US suddenly expects international law to be upheld when they disregarded the international community when they started this war. While I think the argument is a bit of stretch, it does have a valid point.

First, a counterpoint. It's hard to say that the US action in Iraq is "illegal", since there is no real international legislative body. The US did disregard the United Nations in starting this action (as did Bill Clinton in the late 1990s when he launched a three day missle attack on Baghdad), but they broke no international law in doing so. Angering the United Nations does not equal breaking the law.

Now, why would the US military expect Iraq to play by the rules of war? Aren't we going to war with them precisely because they don't play by the rules? Doesn't Saddam Hussein kill his own people for speaking out against him? This is really just an attempt to get the international community to rally around the US cause.

The editorial also points out that the way the US is treating Afghan prisoners from the action there is prohibited by the Geneva Convention. But...the US has already sidestepped this issue with their own distortion of how they define what sort of prisoners they are. The US is bending the rules for their own benefit.

March 26, 2003

If Bill Says So....

Clinton Urges Nation to Support Bush

I think this is good advice. I didn't want to see this come to war as much as the next person, but now that we're there, we better get the job done. And regardless of what you think, you should support the troops. I know that sounds like silly flag-waving patriotism, but these people are putting themselves in harm way for a greater cause. Again, I don't necessarily agree with the cause (or at least the course of action that led up the war), but I'm not going to criticize people for risking their lives.

If Bush (for some odd reason) decided to back down now, what would that do? Do you think it would make Iraq more willing to talk to the UN? Doubtful. Iraq would do everything possible to become a stronger, deadlier nation. Think North Korea. To hear that someone like Koffi Anon wants the coalition forces to leave Iraq just leaves me speechless. Does he really believe that? Did he not think through the consequences? Does he think Iraq would suddenly befriend the United Nations because they stuck up for him? Please.

Good News

The Mozilla folks are releasing a new email client, called Minotaur. Yay! Outside of the Mac (I used the included Mail client), I've been searching for a good email client. On Windows, I tried desperately to find something other than Mozilla, since kitchen-sink feature mentality makes it a lumbering memory hog. I've been using it again, just because everything else sucks even more. On the Linux box, I bounce back and forth between KDE's KMail and Gnome's Evolution. I like KMail, but it tends to die if I try to delete more than 10 messages at once. Evolution is kinda nice, but it's an Outlook clone, and it too is a little on the slow side. If I get board, I may actually just download the source for Minotaur (the pre 0.1 release code is available) and give it spin.

March 25, 2003

A Boy and His Bike That Wasn't

This is a long story, and I don't know if I'll have the patience to get through it. I actually tried it last week, and gave up, so here it goes.....

As some of you may now, I've decided to take up cyclocross, an esoteric branch of cycling that involves riding around a circuit in the woods in the dead winter. What really makes it different from your garden variety mountain bike race is the fact that you are often forced to dismount and run (while carrying your bike) up steep hills, over logs, streams, or bogs. Again, all of this is done in the winter, when it is cold, wet, and muddy. Figures it's a continental European thing....

So I've been fortunate enough to be able to use Jen's commuter bike, which is a 'cross bike fortified for urban assault. It's proven to work okay, though it's heavy, and the lack of any sealed bearings require me to essentially rebuild it after every hard ride in the woods. I've been looking at eBay once a day to see if there were any really good deals on used 'cross bikes. I thought if I could find one, maybe I'd sell the singlespeed and buy it.

Well, about two weeks ago, the deal of the century presented itself. A Specialized CX, two years old, and in pristine condition. It looked too good to be true (note bitter irony here). The guy selling it was in Europe, so I send him an email to get an idea of what shipping was going to cost.

Rather quickly he got back to me saying he'd sell it to me right now for $200 plus shipping and insurance (an additional $100). Well, that sounded like a good deal, but alas, he didn't mark it as "Buy It Now" so I'd have to fight it out with the other bidders, meaning the price would sky-rocket by the time the auction was over. I responded and said it didn't look like we could do that. He came back and said he'd cancel the auction and sell it to me.

At this point, a few alarms went off. First, I thought, the bike was stolen. No way this guy (who said he was bike shop owner) would sell this ride for $200. Second, I thought, am I funding a terrorist cell? I mean, the guy was in Italy and who knows what those Italians are up to. Then I thought, how could I be funding a terrorist with $300? What's he going to get for that? A few clips for his AK-47? I asked the guy a few questions about the bike, and he answered quickly and correctly, so I figured he at least had the bike, even if it was stolen.

So I said "hey sure, sell me the bike." It took him about 5 attempts to cancel to the auction (further evidence will show he's not all that bright), but finally he did it. So we had a deal...I wire him half the cash now, and half when he sends me the tracking number for the package. Deal. I sent him the cash, he sends me the tracking number, I send him the rest of the cash. Yay, Brian has a new bike!

Well....not so fast. After a few days, the package hadn't moved according to UPS, and this guy wasn't answering any emails. Uh oh. After three days, I knew I had been scammed. I didn't really have any recourse through eBay, since the transaction took place outside of the trading area (and, I would have only seen a small percentage of my money if I could go through eBay). I tried to think of what I should do. Then....

I receive an email from another eBay member who asks if the seller of the aforementioned Specialized CX emailed me about buying the bike directly. I responded with a simple yes. This guy gets back to me saying he had been approached as well, and had purchased the bike too. REALLY?. He sent his phone number and told me to call him....

He gave me his story, which was almost identical to mine (down to the text in the emails from the seller). Suddenly, I knew I had been scammed, but also felt much better about it, since this guy (who seemed to be very very eBay saavy) was too. Misery loves company.....What next, I said. He had already contacted the tourism department in the town where this chump lived, and they were going to get in touch with the police (since the Italian police didn't speak English). He would also pass along all of my information to help their case. We at least had a glimmer of hope that we'd see our money, or, in the very least, this guy would get his....

Skip to four days later. I'm looking at eBay, checking the listings for 'cross bikes, when I see a Specialized CX that looks a whole like the one I tried to buy. Like I said, no one said this guy was bright. He listed it on eBay again with a different seller ID. I called my also-scammed friend, and we had a good chuckle, then he sent all of our information to eBay, and requested that they send any info they have to the authorities in Italy. Hours later the bike was off the listing, and all of this seller's accounts were suspended.

So...hopefully some day, I'll be able to write that I got my money back. I'm not terribly hopeful, but I have Learned My Lesson®. What really sorta sucks about the whole thing is that I'm out the money, I don't have a bike, and I'm that much more in the hole before I can a buy a new one. Oh well.....live and learn, live and learn.

March 24, 2003

Hoop Thoughts

Now for something completely different......

How is that Pitt got stuck in the same region as Kentucky, while two lower ranked Big East team (Syracuse and UConn) have far easier paths to the Final Four? I don't get it....

New Politics

I had a bit of a political revelation yesterday, thanks to a post I read on Plastic. I've found myself wavering sorta close to being a libertarian these days, but I had problems with the typical conservative (aka Adam Smith-ian) economic philosophy. I've never been able to come to terms with a completely free market. Most conservatives, and almost all libertarians will say that consumers have the final power in a free market economy, and it's up to them to be responsible with their power. A practical application would be the tobacco industry. Conservatives like to say people shouldn't be allowed to sue the tobacco industry because they haven't been responsible enough to read up on the dangers of using tobacco product. I agree with that, but why don't conservatives want to apply that same code of responsibility to big business? And because they are free-market types, they don't want the government to get involved, because the market should do as it pleases.

Well, I just don't like that.

Enter James Madison. He is considered to be a Classical Liberal by most political philosophers, meaning he believed in a small, less intrusive government, personal liberties, and personal responsiblities. But don't write him off as a conservative. Here's why. Madison had a distrust of any concentration of power. In the days of the Constitutional Converntions, the best known concentration of power was government (like the monarchy in England). The Constitution, and a republican government (that is, a republic or constitutional government) should protect citizens against a concentration of power. Hence the three branches of government, and the layers of government (federal, state, county, city). The better dispersed the power is, the better the citizens will be. So why shouldn't this apply to everything, not just government?

And here's an interesting quote regarding the purpose of the constitution:

The two vital characteristics of the political system of the United States are, first, that the Government holds its powers by a charter granted to it by the people; second, that the powers of government are formed in two grand divisions — one vested in a Government over the whole community, the other in a number of independent Governments over its component parts. Hitherto charters have been written grants of privileges by Governments to the people. Here they are written grants of power by the people to their Governments.

The Constitution's sole purpose isn't to outline our rights as citizens. It is to outline what power the citizens grant to the government. Sure, our rights and liberties are listed there, but that's sorta an afterthought. It's main purpose is to say what the government can and can't do. The government has to play by our rules first.

March 21, 2003

Support Live Music

A group of us saw Mary Timony and Unwed Sailor (plus a few others) last night at the Rex Theatre. I love live music. Sometimes I don't know why I'm so lazy about following the local music scene.

First, I thought Unwed Sailor rocked. They are an instrumental outfit, more in the vain of Mogwai than Tortoise. They are also a critical element in the indie Christian rock scene (the bassist plays with Pedro the Lion. Honestly, there need to be more people like Unwed Sailor and David Bazan (aka Pedro the Lion)....really geniune, honest rock music that doesn't beat you over the head with a bible. In fact, if you take a listen to Pedro the Lion's stuff, the last thing you might think is that David Bazan is a Christian. But really listen to the music, and treat the albums like a novel, and you'll get the message.

Ok, enough of that....

Mary Timony was also fantastic. It was just her, playing guitar or keyboards, and singing. In some ways, it felt like a bit of a letdown after Unwed Sailors very lush set, but the sounds were great, and her voice compensates for the lack of instruments. She also had this German cartoon playing on the screen onstage....no sound, just the cartoon playing behind her. It was compelling in an arty sorta way....

March 19, 2003

War Part 2

I read an interesting article in the print edition of Newsweek last night. Its premise was to explain why the world hate us, and what the current administration did to cause that. Quite an interesting read, with lots of good historical notes that prove it was the Bush administration's diplomacy (or to be more precise, the lack thereof) that caused the impasse at the UN.

Some of more interesting historical points:

• When Clinton sent troops to Bosnia, he did so without a resolution from the UN, but he had the backing of most of Europe.


• The French and Russians have much more to lose if Iraq is invaded. Oddly, not much has been made of this by our conservative media, but both countries would lose investments if the Hussein regime were to be toppled (perhaps this is kept under the hat because the US has just as money companies with money invested there as well).

If you've paid attention to what just about everyone in the administration (save Powell) have said about the issue of Iraq, it is generally an "open mouth, insert foot" exercise. No one is safe from the wrath of Bush diplomacy.

The odd thing about all is that Hussein is a ruthless dictator. Iraqi exiles are rejoicing at the thought of the Baath party's downfall. But no one cares about that. Suddenly, thanks to American neo-conservative rhetoric, Saddam is the poster-boy for the left. I saw there's an interesting article on Salon today about how the left doesn't seem to care about Iraq's gross human rights violations, but I'm too lazy to sit through the ads to read the whole article....

March 18, 2003

War

Well, unless Saddam Hussein has a change of heart and just up and leaves Baghdad, the US will be at war with Iraq by the end of the week. Sad news.

I found this little news blurb to be quite interesting. Oddly, most international news sites didn't mention it.

XML Sux

Tim Bray, one of the original authors of the XML spec, has this bit on his site about why writing programs to parse and generate XML sucks. It's an interesting read if you like this sort of stuff, and it includes links to other disgruntled programmer rants.

March 14, 2003

Lucky, Perhaps?

Here's an interesting article on Salon about the lack of good jobs in the technology sector (thanks /.). Perhaps I'm lucky to live in Pittsburgh, where the tech industry isn't doing too bad. I left a fulltime job last fall, and I've had fairly consistent consulting work since, and I've even turned down an offer for a full-time job. Another friend just got a new job in the industry, and I know a few other folks who are entertaining offers. Perhaps life is okay for us because, even though most of us have worked almost exclusively on web-based projects, our knowledge base is wide enough to allow us find work outside the web (case in point--I was doing ERP system work for awhile--incredibly unglamorous, but it pays well). Or, perhaps some of the people interviewed for articles like this aren't very good at what they do? I doubt that, and I know the market is bad, bad, bad in other cities. Pittsburgh isn't so bad after all....

Some Friendly Advice

Think Dubya is just carrying out his daddy's plan by not playing nice with the United Nations? Think again. Bush Sr has different ideas.

March 12, 2003

Word of the Day

Shonky: Australian slang. Of dubious origin.

Ummm....Duh

I forgot to mention this last week. So, you no doubt have heard of the anti-war protesters who are going to Iraq to act as human shields to attempt to stop the US from attacking. Well, it seems the Iraqi government is telling these folks where they can and can't go to carry out the business of being a human shield. Seems the government would prefer that they shield strategic targets (military bases, power plants, etc) instead of innocent civilians. And it seems the human shields don't like the Iraqi government telling them what to do, so they're packing their bags and leaving.

March 10, 2003

Political Games

The fight over a war in Iraq has taken a new turn. The US say it has new evidence of Iraq's possession of undeclared weapons (cluster bombs, to be exact) that are in violation of the UN resolution. Of course, the French and Russians are stonewalling again, saying they will not vote for any resolution authorizing the use of force (which is odd, since they voted for this last year). But that's not the interesting part. The interesting game is the one the UN inspectors are playing.

I find it hard to believe that the inspectors (especially the lead inspectors) are approaching their jobs without political bias. What do I mean? Well, first, let's look at what the US is doing. They are taking any shred of evidence (or non-evidence) of Iraqi noncompliance and making it a rally cry in the UN. The inspectors are doing the same thing on the other side of the political fence. Hans Blix will point out some bit of non-compliance by the Iraqis, then quickly change the subject and say how cooperative they've been. Read any interview with the man, and he will quickly gloss over the evidence.

Another point. Blix and the UN have repreatedly asked Iraq to produce documentation detailing the supposed destruction of stores of chemical weapons, but Iraq has claimed they don't have that information. Please. This country keeps track of who has satellite TV, but they don't record something like destroying hundreds of tons of anthrax? But the inspectors don't seemed phased by this, instead proudly proclaiming Iraq is making huge strides in sharing information.

I'm not for this war. I want to see this resolved peacefully. But I also want the UN to do its job honestly and correctly. The inspectors should not be viewing the situation in Iraq through any political filters--their job is to find WMD stores or proof that they were destroyed. Nothing more, nothing less.

March 07, 2003

Tid Bits

Various interesting items this morning.....

First, a little politics from home. This is an interesting story on several levels. First...Ed Rendell tries to look like a conservative by introducing the first part of his state budget plan, which includes tax cuts and massive spending cuts. The Republicans in the state congress then thought they could corner the governor by quickly passing the budget with very little debate on the house floor. Of course, Rendell will introduce part 2 of the budget in a week or so, and no doubt it will include spending measures, and it will be doubtful that the Republicans will pass it so quickly, thereby assuring the cuts but limiting the spending. Both sides are trying a bit of sleight of hand, and it won't work for either of them.....Rendell can veto part one if/when it passes (at some political expensive, however, since it remains primarliy unchanged by the legislature), and the Republicans won't end the end get what they want either.

Baby Theory

Jen and I started Lamaze classes last night. I actually found it very interesting, and somewhat surprising. Very information, and very positive toward the natural childbirth experience. There was lots of video, and the images of women lying in bed all day waiting for labour to end are nowhere to be found. They are advocating a woman's very active part in the birth process, and that's a really positive thing. And while they weren't advocating a Bradley Method-style labour, they certainly didn't mention drugs as the first choice to solve a painful delivery.

War

It looks like we're really heading down that road. I'm no peacenik, but I don't favor the US going at this alone. Why? Because we'll be stuck in the process of nation-building on our own, which will further anger Muslim militants who see us as power-hunger infidels. Interesting, Bush seems to be breaking a campaign promise by committing the US to stay in Iraq and set up a new government. I support something along the lines of the new British or Canadian proposals, which give Iraq a bit more time, and set a hard deadline. If they can get the entire Security Council to sign on (highly doubtful), the US will not have to act alone. Again, I'd rather see this get resolved diplomatically, but what it going on right now is hardly diplomacy...France and Germany are merely stalling, and not putting any further pressure on Iraq to comply.

March 05, 2003

Archives

In case any of you really want to know what I was thinking on February 24, the monthly archiving feature is now up and running. See the links in the righthand sidebar. Enjoy.

Open Source

Wow. Technology news makes CNN. A vulnerability in Sendmail could allow users to get root access to a system. The flaw was discovered yesterday by ISS, and the group was quick to point out that there wasn't any know exploit for the bug.

I watched this play out on the Bugtraq list, and it was truly amazing how quickly the vendors responded. Within an our of the post by ISS about the exploit, there were posts indicating that patches were available for most OS distributions. Part of this was due, it seems, from our government. The Department of Homeland Security coordinated the release of the exploit with ISS to allow the vendors time to get a patch complete (which makes good sense to me). According to the CNET article, the bug was found mid-January, and since there wasn't a known exploit for it, DHS decided to allow the vendors to work without a public announcement (which would then give crackers a chance to find an exploit. Hopefully this will be model of how bugs are handled in the future (though we could do without big brother calling the shots).

March 04, 2003

Anti-War

I think this is a nifty idea. Theatre groups across the world are performing Aristophanes Lysistrata as an anti-war protest (Lysistrata is probably the oldest piece of anti-war literature). Interestingly (and expectedly) there is a backlash against it, with many people claiming that artists shouldn't have an opinion about the situation in Iraq. Gee, that's a real American thought. Suddenly only certain people can have opinions (like politicians and people who agree with your cause). All we need is someone to kill one of the players, and we'll be a step closer to resembling a country like Iraq where free speech is just a dream.

Why has peace suddenly become anti-American? And riddle me this: why, if the administration is attacking Iraq to protect America and free the Iraqi people from a tyrant, are we passively sitting around while North Korea does everything in its power to provoke us (I'm certainly not advocating a war in Korea, but as far as tyrannical governments go, North Korea is up at the top of the list). I read an interesting little quote on Plastic yesterday (and I don't remember where so I can't link to it)....a smart government gives its people the illusion of free speech until it's a detriment to its cause. I don't expect America to slip into a police state anytime soon, but it's obvious that at least a few people think free speech is a option, not a commodity.

March 02, 2003

King Carlos

Carlos Sainz has won the first Rally of Turkey, beating Richard Burns and Francois Duval. Sainz took the lead when Harri Rovanpera had technical difficulties on day two, and never looked back. Citroen had a good showing, with Colin McCrae taking fourth, and no doubt Seb Loeb would have finished in the points as well had he not gotten, erm, lost on the road section between stages on day one.

So what have we learned? Well, first, I was certainly a bit hasty writing Ford off in my pre-season notes. Markko Martin would have been competing for a podium had he not had transmission issues on day one, and Duval had a fine rally, finishing third. I fully expect to see either Duval or Martin on the top step of the podium at one event (if not more) this year. Citroen has moved into position to really compete for the maker's championship, with the Xsara WRC proving to be extremely reliable on what should be the roughest event of the championship. Citroen should be able to compete with Peugeot in New Zealand (which is generally a very fast loose surface rally) giving them an edge going into the next spell of rougher rallies (Greece and Cyprus). Peugeot wishes they could do this one over. Though Burns took second, Gronholm barely squeaked into the points in ninth, clearly disappointed with the rally. Gilles Panizzi finished fifth (a fantastic event for the tarmac specialist), but alas, since he was in a customer car, he wasn't nominated for maker's points. Poor, poor Subaru. Petter Solberg was a victim of a spin on day one, and Tommi Makinen never found his groove, though at least he finished in the points in eighth. Toni Gardemeister of Skoda had a fine event, finishing seventh, and pulling ahead of Hyundai in the maker's championship. More importantly for the team, Skoda has scored maker's points in every rally this season. Hyundai started the event well, with Freddy Loix and Armin Schwarz both flying on day one, but the lack of testing caught up them, and neither finished in the points.

So, what's next? Off to the fast, smooth roads of New Zealand, where Gronholm hopes to get this championship defense back on track.