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July 31, 2003

Fire! Fire! Fire!

How to start a flame-war of misinformation on the internet in three easy steps:

1. Reverse engineer the firmware of a Linksys wireless and find that it uses open source, GPL'ed software.

2. Write an entry on your O'Reily blog claiming that the company is in clear violation of the GPL because you can't find the source code for the firmware on the company's website.

3. Suggest a story to Slashdot about this blantant disregard of the GPL.

It's sorta fun to watch these happen when it's slow at work. The post hit Slashdot sometime mid morning, and I was interested just because we have a Linksys router/hub at home, and I wondered if I could glean anything about how it works. I won't go into too many details, since everything is now available on the O'Reily blog, but here are some highlights:

Actually, let me briefly explain the GNU Public License, so you don't have to sift through the legalese...basically, the GPL protects open source, free software code from being used and modified without re-releasing the source code. A simple example:

I write a brand new web browser, and release it under the GPL. My friend Matt decides he likes the web browser, but thinks it could use some other features. I have to make the source code available, either with the distribution of the software, or from a publically accessible website, or by request, so Matt can just download the source, make his changes, and release his modified version. Here's the catch. Matt is required by the GPL to release his modified code with his software. This is why the GPL is often called a "viral" license...as long as you're releasing software using GPL code (no matter how large or small the secion of GPL code is), you have to release the modified source code). Ok, enough of that....

1. Don't Overreact
Rob Flickenger had noble motivates trying to protect the GNU Public License. But he really jumps the gun. His first stated reason for a violation of the GPL:

By opening the firmware file directly, as well as by making queries through the makeshift ping interface mentioned earlier, we noticed that the zebra running on the WRT54G doesn't use the standard configuration file locations. This means that it must certainly be a modified binary.

As many, many Slashdot posts pointed out (and as Rob admits in an update to his blog), configuration file locations are generally defined as parameters in a ./configure used to build source code. Has Rob never built a piece of software on a *nix box with make?

2. Jumping the gun, part 2
Again, from Rob's blog:

And evidently, I'm not the first to notice that these binaries are compiled with a modified GCC (with a signature string of "GCC: (GNU) 3.0 20010422 (prerelease) with bcm4710a0 modifications"). That bcm4710 refers to the Broadcom chipset that this AP is actually made from. If Broadcom is using a modified GCC for their reference design, and are making this available to their developers, aren't they bound by the GPL to make the source code to those modifications available as well?

There could be a GPL violation here, but it's not by Linksys. Broadcom, since they are releasing a modified version of the GCC (the Gnu C Compiler), have to release the source code to Linksys, but since Linksys isn't distributing the GCC with the router, they are not obliged to release that code.

3. Do your homework
If you read his blog update, he's basically recanted everything he's said. Linksys provides a GPL source code repository on their site, and Rob downloaded the source for the router in question, and it did, in fact, have modifications made for their router. But, according to the GPL, that's just fine, since the source was available for public download.

Yeesh. Do your homework. Even without all the Slashdot input, Rob should have at least looked closely at the source that was available before claiming GPL violations. Not only did he publically claim that Linksys was essentially breaking the law, he got the Slashdot community all riled up for no good reason.

Heh

Wow. Our kid is cute.

Where'd You Go?

In case you haven't noticed, the website when *poof* for a day or so. I'm still waiting on more details from my host, but they said a hard drive failure brought down about half their sites. My guess is it was a firewall or gateway machine that went down, since I could still ping my site. On the bright side, their email server didn't go down.

Other Stuff

James Woods Interview. He seems to be a pretty bright guy. Also a bit arrogant, but hey, he's an actor, what do you expect. It's definitely worth clicking through the Salon free day pass ads to read his exchanges with his interviewer.

We are in for quite a political ride. Bush has condemned the concept of homosexual marriages. I read an interesting editorial a few weeks ago in the print edition of the Post Gazette critiquing the idea of legalizing homosexual marriages from a purely political perspective (well, at least mostly). The bulk of the arguments centered around the increase in government services that would be required (using countries in Europe that have legalized homosexual marriages as examples). Even as a Christian, my libertarianism tends to poke through here. If this won't require the government to grow exponentially (thus raising my taxes), have at it. Christians who deny the obvious fact this isn't a Christian nation and try to rely on the law of land to change people's hearts are misguided at best.

The president did, however, say something right during the press conference:

"Yes, I am mindful that we're all sinners," the president said Wednesday when asked for his views on homosexuality. "And I caution those who may try to take the speck out of the neighbor's eye when they've got a log in their own."

The federal government should stay out of this for moment and let the states decide what they want to do. If the people of Virginia don't want homosexual marriages, that's fine. If the people of Maryland do, that's great as well.

July 29, 2003

Hmmm...Updated

Well, I learned a couple of things about the NYC school (see below). Enrollment is not limited to homosexuals. Here's an excerpt from their mission statement:

The Hetrick-Martin Institute (HMI) believes all young people, regardless of sexual orientation or identity, deserve a safe and supportive environment in which to achieve their full potential. HMI creates this environment for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth between the ages of 12 and 21 and their families. Through a comprehensive package of direct services and referrals, HMI seeks to foster healthy youth development. HMI's staff promotes excellence in the delivery of youth services and uses its expertise to create innovative programs that other organizations may use as models.

Ok, great. If they're trying to foster a supportive environment, I think that is fantastic. But then why include any mention of homosexuality? Again, this just seems like a way to solve one problem (homosexuals getting mistreated in public schools) with something that's going to cause more problems.

I really want to stress that I think this should be, as described in the mission statement, a private school. Public schools should be just that -- public. Open to anyone. There are exceptions to that, though. The Pittsburgh school system has the concept of magnet schools -- academically rigorous schools that don't limit enrollment based on geographic location. If you're smart enough, you can go there regardless of what ward you live in. But.....anyone from the ward where the magnet school is located is still accepted, regardless of academic standing. There's also special education units, but is this special treatment? These kids have physical problems that prevent them from learning in the same manner as everyone else. They would lilkely fail out of the typical public high school.

Hmmmm

New York City to open first gay high school.

I don't know what to think about this. I've got some ideas though:

* How to does one determine who is gay enough to get in? Say I'm a geeky straight kid (not much of a stretch, eh?) and I get the snot beat out of me once a week in PS 134. If I'm not a homophobe, I'd try to get in. Harvey Milk has got what I want: rigorous academic programs, fewer (if any) bullies, and a high profile for getting into a good college.
* What about fat kids, geeks, jocks, cheerleaders, and trenchcoat mafia types? Shouldn't they be given the same opportunity to have a supportive school to help them?
* By really pushing this school, the NYC school board is merely saying they couldn't address the problem of tolerance in their public schools.
* I think the ex-Wall Street exec that's the principal should have taken all his money and started a private school instead. Then no one can complain about government money being used to push a particular agenda. It's no different than a Catholic school, a Jewish school, an art school.

So I guess I do know what to think about it. I don't have a problem with an "exclusive" school, but I do have a problem with an "exclusive" school that uses public funds. Imagine if NYC opened a Jewish-only or Catholic-only school? How would that go over?

July 28, 2003

If This Is the Future...

I want out, now!

Another interesting Salon article detailing a college Republicans convention. I realize the author did her best to find the extremists at the convention, but even the fact that people think this way is pretty scary to me. Even scarier are the excerpts from the Ultimate Warrior's speech to the kiddies.

Neat Stuff

First, a bit of politics. Salon has a great piece on the widening divide between George W Bush and the neoconservatives and the traditional (small government, isolationist foreign policy, minimal government spending) conservatives within the Republican party. If you really think Bush represents the face of conservativism, read this article.

Then there's the do-it-yerself GNU/Linux PVR. If I had cable I'd try it!

In case you live under a rock, Lance Armstrong won his fifth consecutive Tour de France on Sunday. I don't think the organizers could have asked for a better storyline. First, an extremely close race for the yellow jersey (Armstrong won by just over 60 seconds). Second, Tyler Hamilton. The man (doesn't he look about 15 years old) broke his collarbone on stage 1 and ended up in fourth place. There is another American to follow in the Lemond/Armstrong wake. Third, Jan Ullrich. He came to tour hoping to get in shape for next year, and he gave Armstrong the fight of his life. The amazing thing is he's only 27. He will win several yellow jerseys before he's finished.

July 27, 2003

Rally Deutschland Wrapup

Sebastien Loeb has won this year's German Rally by a mere 3 seconds over Marcus Gronholm. It's been quite a wild weekend, with multiple lead changes and nasty weather.

Both Richard Burns and Markko Martin held the lead at various points this weekend. Burns looked to be set to score his first win in a Peugeot, but things just went all wrong on Saturday, and Burns just couldn't keep up with the rest of field. He had slipped as far as fifth, but a strong showing on Sunday moved him back into third, giving him enough points to maintain his lead in the drivers championship. Martin was foiled by mechanical problems with his Ford Focus. First, gearbox problems late on Friday moved him down the standings, then after charging back to the hunt on Saturday, more transmission problems had him fighting again.

Interesting technical note:
On friday, Martin lost 5th and 6th gear in the Focus and was forced to use manual shifting. Most of the WRC cars use semi-automatic sequential transmissions, meaning they only need the clutch to start and stop, and they shift via paddles or levels on the steering column. When Ford released the latest version of the Focus WRC this year, one of the "advancements" was combining the handbrake and manual shifter into a single unit to save space in the cramped cockpit (the handbrake is a key tool for the rally driver...it allows them to lock the rear wheels and swing the back of the car around tight corners, thus preserving speed and momentum). Well, in manual mode, Martin lost use of the handbrake altogether, and on the tight vineyard stages actually had to make 3 point turns (!) to get around some of the corners. I'm sure the Ford engineers suddenly didn't feel so clever after Martin lost even more time.

Martin ended the rally in fifth place, after ending the day Sunday with more stage wins.

Citroen had a strong showing from Colin McRae and Carlos Sainz, with McRae taking 4th and Sainz 6th. Sainz also managed to hold onto second place in the drivers championship.

Skoda did not manage to get a new Fabia to the finish line, but both Toni Gardemeister and Didier Auriol were quite happy with the car, and Gardemeister managed consistent stage times, even cracking the top 10 several times (quite a feat given the limited number of retirements). Hopefully, given the rest of the schedule, Skoda will focus on tarmac testing, and we could see some good results by the end of the year.

It was quite a disappointing rally for Subaru. Petter Solberg said he felt "unwell" all weekend, and never managed to make an impact. He finished 8th, and still managed to collect a few points for Subaru. Tommi Makinen retired with battery trouble on Saturday. Yet another disappointing rally for Tommi -- I don't expect he'll be returning next year. Hopefully Subaru can tweak the Impreza a bit before the remaining tarmac rallies so Solberg has a chance to get back into the championship hunt.

So, Richard Burns maintains a four point lead over Carlos Sainz and a five point lead over Marcus Gronholm. If Burns can race consistently over the course of the season, he should be able to hold off Gronholm and Sainz. With the points rules in place, Burns would not even have to win a rally this year, as long as either Sainz of Gronholm didn't run the table (keep in mind Burns won the championship in 2001 winning only New Zealand).

July 25, 2003

Rally Deutschland - Day 1 - Update

Within only the superspecial at St Wendel this evening left, Richard Burns is back in the lead. Markko Martin stormed the middle stages, and looked to be the main to beat, until gearbox issues left him without 5th and 6th gears (not exactly ideal for the flat, wide stages later in the day). Martin has been bleeding time since SS5, and now sits in 10th place, over a minute behind Burns. Seb Loeb and Marcus Gronholm are breathing down Burns' back, each less than 10 seconds off his pace. Colin McRae and Gilles Panizzi round out the top 5, but neither are within quick striking distance of the podium.

The Subarus aren't having a great day, with Solberg one minute behind Burns, and Makinen just behind him. Hopefully they will sort things out tonight and be in the hunt tomorrow. The new Skodas are running well, with Toni Gardemeister in 12th, but still well within striking distance of a top 10 finish. Both Gardemeister and Didier Auriol say the car is running well, with only minor issues so far -- a great start for the Fabia.

Tomorrow should be an interesting day. All eyes will be on Gilles Panizzi, since he's yet to make his move on his favorite surface. Seb Loeb should also push things tomorrow, since he is so close to Burns, and he's got to feel confident, having won the rally last year. Carlos Sainz has been quiet as well, not running as quickly as his teammates, but not running too far off the pace either. Right now, his chances of taking the lead in the driver's championship look pretty slim.

Rally Deutschland - Day 1

Day 1 of the German Rally is at the halfway point, and there have been a few surprises. Richard Burns came out of the gate very quickly, setting the pace on SS1 and 2, but Markko Martin has responded and now has the lead after four stages. The surprises? Well, pre-race favorite Gilles Panizzi is roughly 40 seconds of the pace at the moment. Perhaps this isn't too much of a surprise, given day 1 is run on the military grounds where Panizzi had a testing accident a few weeks ago. Added to that is the constantly changing surface (new tarmac, old tarmac, cement, cobbles, all mixed with dirt), but given his strong performances on the loose surface events this year, something seems amiss.

The new Ford Focus has been quick so far, and as long as Martin doesn't run into mechanical issues, he should be gunning for a podium place. Colin McRae was also quite quick, though he lost a bit of time overshooting a junction on SS4. Marcus Gronholm has also stayed close to the pace, and is holding fourth place at the moment. Tommi Makinen and Petter Solberg are struggling a bit, currently holding down eighth and ninth, respectively. Solberg complained a bit at the first service about the Impreza's power, but he's picked up his pace a bit. And the new Skoda Fabia has been doing well on its maiden event, with Tommi Gardenmeister holding tenth spot at the moment.

More updates as the day goes on....

July 24, 2003

News and Notes

I'd love to write more on this article, but I'm trying to finish another long post. All I will say is...the government should stay out of this. If a state government decides a faith-based prison program is the way to go for prisoner therapy, and they can prove their citizens are ok with idea (via a referendum), that's just fine. But this is a clear violation of church/state separation. I agree with the writer....

What is up with Eric Crouch? The kid wins the Heisman trophy at Nebraska, then walks away from not one, but two NFL training camps. Is he really that arrogant? The boy will never play a game in the NFL.

The shakedown for the Rally Deutschland happened this morning. No big news. There is rain in the forecast, however, which could be good news for the Pirelli-shod Subarus, as those tyres tend to like wet tarmac better.

New Wheels

I picked up a new bike last night, thanks to my friends Steven and Trina. It's an old Specialized Allez frame, tricked out as singlespeed. It's not a fixie, but thanks to the horizontal dropouts and track chain, I just need a rear wheel with a track hub and I'm set. Other nice features: full Shimano 105 components, bullhorn bars, a carbon fork, and a Bontranger stem. The bike needs a bit of love though, and I stripped it down last night and will paint it this weekend, probably a nice shade of mint green. I also need a new chainring. The current 45x16 gearing will guarantee that I will need knee surgery in a month or so, so I need to pick up something a bit smaller, probably in the neighborhood of 39 or 38. If all goes well, it should be on the road some time next week.

July 23, 2003

Ahh, Rallying

Rally Deutschland

The World Rally Championship heads to Germany this weekend for the first proper tarmac rally of the year. This is a big event. First, Skoda is debuting the new Fabia WRC. While the team admits they are a bit ahead of schedule to release the car, they also feel it's better to treat this rally as just another test for the car in hopes it will be fully competitive in a month or so. If all went well for the team, at least one of the new cars would make it through the rally (which is quite possible, since it is a tarmac rally, which are traditionally easier on the cars than loose surface events).

There is also the ramifications of the new third driver rule that will be established next season. Several teams (Peugeot and Citroen) cannot keep their current lineups under the new rule (a team's third driver can't have a podium place in the previous season). That means that Colin McRae, Carlos Sainz, Richard Burns, Gilles Panizzi, and/or Harri Rovanpera will be with a new team next year. The current convential wisdom says that Sainz will stay with Citroen, and Burns with Peugeot, though neither driver has a new contract. If Burns stays at Peugeot, neither Rovanpera or Panizzi can stay. If Sainz can do well this weekend, Citroen will surely keep the Spainard, who is only a point adrift of Burns in the drivers championship.

On to the rally....

Germany is a bit of an odd tarmac event, with each day's stages taking place on very different surfaces. Many of the roads are very rough, and the stages through the military range on Sunday have large cement blocks along the sides of the road to take out unsuspecting drivers. Panizzi is always a favorite to win a tarmac event, but he had a bad shunt during testing last month here, so he'll have to get over that to perform well. Seb Loeb is the obvious choice as winner, as he won here last year and he keeps up the tradition of speedy tarmac aces from France (see Panizzi, Giles and Auriol, Didier). Marcus Gronholm and Richard Burns should be quick as well. Subaru would like to see a good result from Petter Solberg to keep his title hopes alive, and Tommi Makinen might just like to see the finishing ramp on Sunday. Makinen still hasn't decided what to do next year (retire or stay with Subaru), and a postive rally this weekend might convince him to stick around.

This is also an important test for Ford. The new Focus has proved to be quick, albeit a bit fragile, on gravel, but this will be its first tarmac rally. If it is quick, Markko Martin could still be a championship contender this year. If not, well, it will be a long fall for the team, with a string of tarmac rallies approaching.

Don't expect Freddy Loix or Armin Scharwz to be a threat in this rally. The attrition rate should be fairly low, and that means the Hyundai Accent will be struggling to keep pace.

My top 5:
Sebastien Loeb
Gilles Panizzi
Petter Solberg
Marcus Gronholm
Richard Burns

July 21, 2003

Perl Bug

This just showed up in my inbox. CGI.pm is probably the most used module for Perl web programming. Even if a patch is released, there are probably a lot of sites out there that won't upgrade. While the world won't end, it still could be a pain in the butt for a lot of people.

Le Tour

Lance Armstrong has finally decided to take control of the Tour de France with a fine stage win on the slopes of Luz-Ardiden. Despite a crash and a mechanical issue, Armstrong pulled away from the other favorites on the stage's last climb and has now extended his narrow lead.

Interesting side note: we got to see a bit of the cycling peleton's sense of ethics today. As Armstrong, Tyler Hamilton, Jan Ulrich, and others were trying to catch a breakaway, Armstrong went down. Typically, an American who isn't versed in international cycling would say "sucks to be Lance...those guys are gonna take advantage of that." But in reality, Ulrich and Hamilton held up the rest of the group until Armstrong could rejoin them, as one of the unwritten rules of cycling says you shouldn't benefit from an opponents crash. Armstrong returned the favor by putting the hammer down on the last climb....

Weekend

We took our climbing this weekend with the boy -- to Coopers Rock (a couple of photos on the home page). It was good time, though we were only there for a few hours (since we left at 1pm). Seb seem to have a good time, taking all the nature in, so that's a positive sign. Here are a couple of images.

In other news...we went to the Vintage Grand Prix this weekend. Saw my friend's recently retooled Pantera. I believe it's got about 610 horsepower at the moment. I should have taken some photos, but I was too in awe. I've also got it stuck in my head that I want a 1989 or 90 BMW M3 e30. My friend sold one of these to get his Pantera, and it was just an amazing car. It doesn't have a huge engine, but the handling is simply amazing -- a true track car. They aren't terribly expensive to purchase used, and they generally retain their value as there are fewer and fewer of them on the streets (many owners convert them to full track cars), but maintanence can be bit expensive.

July 17, 2003

State of the Onion

Larry Wall's 7th annual State of the Onion address is up on the O'Reilly site. These are always entertaining...Larry is a really bright guy (he created the first version of Perl by himself) and he knows a lot about a lot of things.

Google This

Lately, the project at work has been revolving around an application search engine. We're storing data in a database, and documents uploaded by users, and one of the specs requires search functionality to quickly parse both datasets and return the results. We're using the Jakarta Lucene search framework as the foundation. Basically, Lucene is a library to provide the under-the-hood search engine functionality -- indexing the data according to specified keyword and stopword analysis, optimizing the index to provide the fastest possible searches, and providing the various search algorithms to parse queries. Interesting stuff.

The biggest hurdle with Lucene is the absolute lack of good documentation. There are a few brief tutorials on the web site, and there are a few other articles out there, but these provide little more than the classic "Hello, World" adapted to Lucene. After a week or so hacking around the indexing functionality, we've got that fairly well nailed down, but now I'm fighting through trying to parse the search results and return them to the UI in some sort of generic format. What really throws the process on its ear is the multiple data types that can be searched. If we were just dealing with documents, that wouldn't be so bad....simply return the document name, path, and perhaps an excerpt with the search terms highlighted. Or, if it were just database data, that wouldn't be so bad (though we still have to deal with pulling the data from various tables in the database). But combine the two and things get sticky....I think I'm going to approach it from both the document and database angles, developing a possible solution for each, then finding the common items between the two and going from there.

July 16, 2003

Today's Most Interesting Google Request

markko martin fans estonian badass

My dreams of being a well known WRC writer may come true yet....

July 15, 2003

Telemarketers

Salon has an interesting article on what the new regulations for the telemarketing industry will mean for the economy.

I must admit, I had never really thought about the ramifications of the new national do-not-call lists to the bigger picture. While I certainly don't feel bad for the telemarketers, all of us will feel the result of the do-not-call lists, and I don't mean just a quiet phone during dinner.

The industry heads interviewed in the article obviously want to play up their case. They claim millions of people will be laid off in the coming year. Perhaps. I'm sure many more people will find themselves out of work. That will hurt the economy. But I'm not really interested in the telemarketers....I'm more interested in the politicians that pushed this throught.

First, note this about the do-not-call registry -- political groups are exempt. That's right, your local Republican/Democratic/Green/Libertarian group can still badger you during dinner, and there's nothing you can do about it, besides tell them to go pound salt. So, let me get this straight -- telemarketers can't make a buck by annoying us with phone calls, but our politicans can? Interesting. Fortunately, a few smart politicians tried to change this aspect of the bill, but that opposition was promptly shut down.

I don't want to rehash the whole article, so go and read it. It's worth sitting through the ad to get a Salon Premium day pass. The article changed my mind a bit about the whole telemarketing issue...

I did sign up for the do-not-call registry. But, thanks to the marvelous invention of caller ID, we rarely ever speak to a telemarketer. 99% of time, their phone numbers come up on the screen as "Unavailable", so we don't even pick up the phone. If it happens to be someone we know, they'll leave a message, and we'll pick up. In retrospect, I should be more troubled by our government being so intrusive in the business world. I guess the citizens of nation want something like this, but shouldn't everyone be concerned with more pressing issues? Perhaps the $4 billion a month bill from occupying Iraq? Nah, we're more concerned with getting bothered with a phone call during dinner.

July 14, 2003

Nifty

I almost never look at this site's access logs, even though my hosting provider offers several nice reports on my admin page. I did, however, take a peek today, and I found this refering URL:

http://www.google.com/search?q=perl+socket+applications&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&start=10&sa=N

I had completely forgotten that I had posted my very own Perl lightning talk on the site a few months ago. I find it sorta nifty that if you do a search on "perl socket applications" my talk comes up in the first page of results.

Even More Gnome

I discoved a truly disappointing fact this weekend about Galeon this weekend -- it doesn't work with Gnome 2.2 (the latest greatest release I have running on the Slack box at home). Humm. I only running Gnome 2.0 here at work, which is still compatible with the Gnome 1.2 libraries that Galeon was designed against. Oh well. Soon enough, Galeon should be available. Good thing I still like Firebird.

New Stuff

Just a few quick items....

There are new Seb photos on the home page.

I posted a couple of climbing images from our last spring trip.

In case anyone cares, I added a "Current Reading" entry on the sidebar of this page.

I added a Creative Commons license to this page. Most of what I write isn't really even worthy of being copied by anyone, but should I ever put effort into a piece, I don't want anyone to nick it....

July 11, 2003

More Gnome

I've decided to give Galeon a try while I use Gnome at work. In case you're lazy and don't want to follow the link, Galeon is a Gnome-based web browser based on Gecko, the Mozilla rendering engine. Galeon actually requires that Mozilla be installed on the machine (which is sorta odd), but I got over that pretty quickly.

So what does it have? Everything that Firebird has...tabbed browsing, pop-up blocking, prompt page loading, low memory usage. What else, you ask, to make me leave my beloved Firebird? A full Google toolbar, better intergration with the overall Gnome theme, and the ability to use my mouse scroll wheel button as a back button. Firebird can do that on a Windoze machine, but not with Linux. And it restores your session should it happen to crash (which it just recently did for me).

Complaints? None, really. The page rendering is just a little bit slower than Firebird, and there's screen repainting funkiness when I drag a smaller window across it, but otherwise, I really like it so far....

Gnome

In case you're interested, here's a screenshot of my Gnome desktop. This will also be a fine test of your browser's standards compliance, as the image is a .png ;-)

July 10, 2003

No Subject

Just a bunch of random stuff today:


  • Seb got his first immunizations yesterday. What a truly heartbreaking event, seeing the boy in pain like that. He seems to be a little less grumpy today though...

  • After an all-too-human start to the Tour de France, Lance Armstrong and the rest of the US Postal Service team flexed their muscles yesterday and crushed the field in the team time trial. Armstrong is now one second off the lead, held by teammate Victor Hugo Pena.

  • I have trouble believing reports that both Karl Malone and Gary Payton will end up the LA Lakers. Malone would have to take a $15 million paycut to join the team...is a championship that important to him? I also have trouble believing that four superstars can exist on that team, giving how long it took Kobe and Shaq to get along. Plus, there's the little hurdle of learning the triangle offense. Payton and Malone are bright basketball players, but expectng them to contribute immediately in that system might be a little too hopeful.

  • I finally switched over to Gnome at work. I found a nice Aqua-esque theme, and I'm quite happy at this point. I've found when using a distro like RedHat (which is required where I work) many of the system-related apps are GTK+ based (the programming library for Gnome), so even if you're using KDE and the QT API, you lose consistent interface. But within Gnome, you don't have to use any KDE apps, so the theme is applied across all of the apps. Quite nice.

July 09, 2003

The Kid is Alright

Liz Phair has responded to the NY TImes review of her new album. While I still think I won't run out and buy her album, this behind the major record label contract, the real Liz Phair still exists....

At least the review itself isn't trying so hard to be clever....

Powerless

We lost our electricity last night, thanks to another storm of Biblical proportion. It was kinda nice -- candlelight, no distractions like the computer or the phone (ahh, the joy of cordless phones). It wasn't kinda nice at 2:00am though when the nice cool breeze stopped and there was no fan to stir the air. Fortunately, Duquense Light got it together, and power was back by 3:00am or so. By the way, one of the advantages of having an infant is that you never ever have to set an alarm clock....

As soon as time allows, I'll be putting together some short video clips of Seb for the website. Keep your eyes peeling on the front page for updates....


July 08, 2003

Oh Yeah...One More Thing I Don't Like....

The Pennsylvania Department of Motor Vehicles rules for registering a moped.

I've been trying to find a decent used moped to get back and forth to work when it's wicked hot and I don't want to ride my bike. Thanks to EBay I found a nice one in Slippery Rock PA, and the owner was willing to deliver it to me for $50. Good deal. I was stoked. The moped wasn't registered, however. The owner suggested I call the DMV, and he also forwarded a few emails from other people who got mopeds registered here in ye olde commonwealth. I discovered one basic premise of registering a moped in PA:

If it isn't brand new, and it isn't already registered elsewhere, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO REGISTER THE MOPED EASILY -- IF AT ALL.

The person I spoke to actually laughed when I told them my situation. "Good luck," he said. Great.

So here's what the law actually says...if the moped isn't registered, if you provide a Manufacturer's Certificate of Origin, a bill of sale, and verification of the VIN. Well, the owner of the moped had all these things, but....he sent me an email from another angry PA moped owner....basically, this guy had all this stuff, brought down to the DMV, and they rejected his request for registration. The VIN verification was even done by STATE POLICE OFFICER!!! Sorry, they said, they couldn't confirm the MCO. So he said his only recourse was to find a scrapyard, "sell" his moped to the scrapyard, then "buy" it back and register it as salvage.

Ahhhh, bureaucracy. We're talking about glorified bicycles here. I've got no problem registering a moped, or getting insurance for it...but make easy for crying out loud. Why the stiff regulations? I'm trying to cut down my gasoline usage (average MPG of a moped? About 150), so they should let me register the thing for free. I'd even be willing to get the thing inspected instead of wading through seas of red tape.....

King James

LeBron James' agent thinks he should get to play in private before he plays publically with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Funny how folks couldn't wait to get "King James" to the NBA, and now that he's there, they can wait. Suddenly his agent is worried because "he's only 18 years old." Funny how he didn't think it was bad for 18 year to sign over $100 million in endorsement contracts. Sorry, but I can't feel sorry for LeBron James right now. I might feel sorry for him the first time he gets left in the dust or gets an elbow to the face from his new opposition though....

July 07, 2003

Things I Really Don't Like...

I wouldn't use a strong word like hate for these things, but just a little overview of some things that perturbed me this weekend:

1. Our neighbors. They had a cookout at 11:30pm on Saturday night. With their very young children. What?!?

2. The PA fireworks laws. Why do these laws exist if they aren't enforced? You can't own or possess fireworks in our fine commonwealth, yet all night on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, all I heard were firecrackers and fireworks. Personally, fireworks don't really do anything for me, and I find them a bit annoying at 12:00am when I'm trying to sleep, but if you're not going to enforce the law, why not take it off the books and collect tax revenue from the sales?

3. The weather. I heard all spring how we were going to have a cool, wet summer. Well, they got the wet part right, at least. This humidity has to go, and soon.

4. Equitable Gas. Don't ever, ever signup for their budget program. It's great in the winter to spread out your payments when it's cold (and you live in a house that's only slightly better insulated than an appliance box), but it's nothing but trickery in the summers. We were doing the budget program this past winter, and when I was paid for a consulting job, I just paid off our balance since we had the cash. The next month my bill said we had a credit. It looked as if the previous balance that I paid was based on their estimates (which I've never understood -- "we're going to bill you based on our guess...so we may owe you money, or you may owe us more money" -- what a great business plan!) and I had in fact overpaid. Well, this month we get another huge bill. Not because we've used our furnace, but because we had a budget credit, not a real credit with them. So even though our bills looked like we shouldn't be paying anything (I was fooled by the Current Balance: $0.00 at the bottom of our bills), that was just some new math on their part with our budget balance. Whatever.