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Friday, April 29, 2005

Yesterday, the Knoxville News-Sentinel rolled out a new look for their website. I still don't see a link for RSS feeds. Color me unimpressed with the "upgrade".

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.: posted by Dave 8:32 AM



Thursday, April 28, 2005

World's Dumbest DMV:

At last, an issue that has Democrats and Republicans both worked up in a tizzy.

The state Department of Motor Vehicles may be violating the law by requiring some cars to receive emissions tests in 2005 and again in 2006, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said Tuesday.

The state emissions tests are supposed to be conducted every other year.

About 640,000 cars and small trucks missed tests while the program was suspended from April 22 to Nov. 12, 2004. The DMV decided to schedule those vehicles for $20 tests in consecutive years to put the program back on schedule, DMV spokesman Bill Seymour told the Republican-American of Waterbury on Monday.

"We have to make up for that and get back to our regular cycle," he said.


Oh, I don't think so. It cannot possibly be expected that 640,000 Connecticut drivers should pay twice for emissions testing, especially given that it was Agbar's (the private software contractor's) fault in the first place for having the program suspended.

The state would not get the $12.8 million in additional funds from the affected vehicles because the additional $20 fee would be shared between the testing garage and Agbar, Seymour said.

So, let me see if I have this right. Agbar screws up, shuts down for a season, comes back with a "new and improved" product, and they get rewarded for their incompetence? Something doesn't quite seem right with that.

Fortunately, Attorney General Blumenthal seems to be on this case, as he is questioning the legality of the DMV's audacious decision. Since local talk radio, which has seldom met a tax or fee imposition it didn't like, has jumped on the anti-DMV bandwagon, I suspect this won't go much further... at least I am hopeful.

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.: posted by Dave 8:46 PM


The People's Republic of Connecticut:

Folks like me tend to worry a lot here in Connecticut when the legislature meets, because one of two things happens - they conspire to raise taxes of some sort, or they try to legislate something stupid. This week, we have been blessed with a not so rare occurence. Both happened simultaneously.

Item #1: New Connecticut Tax Rates Proposed. This sentence stood out to me:

Although Rell has harshly criticized the legislative plans, Democrats say that the two sides are not far apart: Rell has proposed a 7.7 percent spending increase in the first year, while the Democrats are seeking a 9.4 percent increase.

Proof that there is really no difference in these parts between a Democrat and a Republican.

Item #2: Senate Acts to Ban Soda in Schools.

Sigh. What do they think this will accomplish?

I'll tell you what will happen. Some enterprising kids will bring 12 packs to school on a daily basis and sell them for $1 per can. That's about a 300% profit even with the deposit. Not bad for a days work. And shouldn't there be a little attention paid somewhere to personal responsibility? How can we expect kids to make good choices when we don't give them choices to make? Further, you'd think the legislature would have better things to do than ban Coke and Pepsi from school campuses. Maybe if we agreed to the ban, they could dump some legislators, and the savings in salary could be rebated to the taxpayers.

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.: posted by Dave 8:37 PM


This is one of the most bizarre consumer products I have ever seen. All I can say is "ouch"... for a demonstration, go watch the movie. Yikes!

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.: posted by Dave 8:34 PM


One More Rant - Those Wacky IT Security Geeks:

This week, the geniuses who run the security applications on our corporate network decided that it would be a good idea to patch Outlook 2002 with a new service pack. Sounds like a good idea, since it IS a recommended upgrade, right?

Well, here's a little word for you glimmering intellectuals. The newest Outlook patch has a little thing in it called the Object Model Guard. What this is supposed to do is to keep malicious third party programs from exploiting your Outlook client by assuming your identity and sending emails to various users in your address book. What it does in practice is that it bans ALL third party programs from accessing Outlook. That includes Pocket Mirror, the Palm e-mail conduit, and... wait, Outlook itself! So why does this matter to me?

Well, you see, I wrote a nice little plug-in that forwards my email to me on another POP3 server so that I can access it on my PDA. Worked like a dream. That is, until you guys decided that your bright idea of patching all of the Outlook clients was more important than assuring that there were no unintended consequences for doing so. So, hey, thanks for that!

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.: posted by Dave 8:25 PM


Note to the guy who owns this audio system: PLEASE don't move into my neighborhood.

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.: posted by Dave 8:23 PM


Corporate E-mail Rant:

While I am on a rant kick, let me take a moment to call out the hundreds (yes, hundreds) of corporate email users today who, in my office, didn't know the difference in sending an email to a specific user and sending an email to all the users on the original!

Two things, guys... do NOT use the REPLY TO ALL button, and do NOT include a Mailing List in your CC field. There's no better way to cripple the Exchange server than to do these things, and then to encourage your twenty other office friends to do the same. If you can't use email responsibly, give the keys to your cube mate so you can't do any harm. Or teach yourself how to use the phone instead.

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.: posted by Dave 8:15 PM


IKEA Rant:



I decided several months ago to pick up one of these dining room cabinets for my wife, and she is quite happy with it. However, I was extremely disappointed with IKEA's stupid cartoony assembly guide. It's like having a mime tell you how to assemble something. Egad! I understand they are multinational, and I understand the expense would be higher to produce several sets of instructions, but can't they at least do some user-friendly things like dimensioning the components or shading the sides that should face in and out?

And how about putting guiding holes on pieces that have to be nailed onto others? I had to determine by eye where nails needed to be placed, and damned if I didn't hammer three nails that didn't line up properly. Damn you, IKEA!

That being said, it really is a nice cabinet, and I'm glad the wife likes it. Still, I can't help but wonder if IKEA should take tips from Sauder, who seems to have made an art form out of this sort of furniture.

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.: posted by Dave 8:06 PM


Run Palm OS apps on your Pocket PC? You can now:

StyleTap has announced the availability of StyleTap Platform for Windows Mobile based Pocket PCs. This exciting new product allows most applications originally written for Palm OS handhelds to run on Windows Mobile-based PDAs.

StyleTap can run many of the thousands of third-party applications written for Palm OS Garnet v5.2 (and earlier) devices. Palm OS Applications appear and operate on a Pocket PC just like native Windows Mobile-based programs. You can even cut and paste between Palm OS-based applications and native Windows Mobile-based applications on the same handheld device.

StyleTap also incorporates unique backwards compatibility features to fully support older applications as well. One such feature allows both newer and older game applications to perform direct screen updates. The product also includes the StyleTap Application Installer, which allows you to easily install third-party Palm OS-based applications from your desktop Windows system onto your handheld.


This would be a great first step for someone like me who wouldn't mind trying some PPC devices, but I don't think I care for the limitations of the software:

(N)o conduits or "hacks" are supported, Bluetooth will not work and any application that directly manipulates Motorola 68000 hardware registers is not supported. However, direct screen writes are supported.

Without Bluetooth support, this particular application wouldn't serve me very well. Maybe someone will figure out how to port VMWare to the handheld world.

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.: posted by Dave 8:00 PM


I've been doing so much with the present iteration of .NET lately that I haven't been keeping up to speed with the next generation of Visual Studio tools. Now that the second beta is out, I have two immediate comments.

  • Holy crap! 3.75 GB??? Come on. At least provide a bitTorrent for it.
  • At last, refactoring support for VB.net.
  • Labels:

    .: posted by Dave 7:55 PM


    Some Internet Timekillers:

    A lot of these one-liners, I didn’t get until I lived in Connecticut. I would add the following: You can't understand why people don't understand what you’re talking about when you refer to a "grinder". For my wife, here’s a similar tribute to her former hometown.

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    .: posted by Dave 7:54 PM


    I thought I would take a moment to throw out some superlatives to one of my favorite weekly reads, Waiter Rant. I did pizza delivery for twelve years, and I have hundreds of stories very similar to those on Waiter Rant. Someday, I might even compile them in a book. It would have been terrific if way back in the day, blogging was as pervasive as it is now. It would have been a hell of a way to chronicle my exploits.

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    .: posted by Dave 7:51 PM


    Chris at My Quiet Life has set up an IRC channel for RTBers. I'm shocked that I am not the only one who still uses IRC. I'll have to stop by sometime.

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    .: posted by Dave 7:49 PM


    I came across an interesting thread on Slashdot about a book called "Professional Excel Development".

    While from a pure perspective, Excel will never be considered a “platform”, it does allow for rather robust development of desktop applications, especially for analysis. Is it a DBMS? No. Is it an IDE? No. Is it a compiler? No. Does it provide a serviceable solution for the enterprise where the software package is largely ubiquitous and requires little additional investment (except for the VBA programming)? Definitely.

    Furthermore, many organizations will simply not approve expenditure for a fancy set of programming tools where they could just leverage what already exists on the shelf. This could be compared to using a ratchet set vs. using a power driver. Either will do the job, but if you already own a ratchet set, why put down $50-100 for a power tool? This is the corporate mindset, like it or not, where the bottom line is, well, the bottom line. Thus, Excel is a viable alternative in many cases.

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    .: posted by Dave 7:48 PM


    Enough Already:

    There's been a lot said lately about the filibuster in national politics. I recall President Clinton’s judicial nominees being filibustered in the 90s. That fact alone makes the Republicans very hypocritical right now. Yet, it makes the Democrats equally so.

    There should be a single set of rules, played by all, regardless of who happens to be the majority party. That being said, I strongly favor a vote on all nominees. Not stonewalling. Not grandstanding. Just a simple up-and-down vote. And that goes for both parties.

    When the Democrats are again the majority party, and it will happen again someday, I expect the Republicans to allow an up-and-down vote, too. Unfortunately, I think that might be too much to expect in the world of bipolar politics.

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    .: posted by Dave 7:39 PM



    Wednesday, April 27, 2005

    An update to the dormitory fire story yesterday. I haven't seen this posted on any news sites, but this comes from a source in Collegedale.

    UPDATE: Investigators Release Cause Of Fire

    Investigators say a candle burning in a room on the third floor of Thatcher Hall is to blame. 20-year-old Kelly Weimer was trapped inside and died.


    Chattanoogan.com reports that the fire started on a 3rd floor couch, but does not attribute the blaze to a candle.

    The school and all the students and staff have my prayers. May God put his hand on the family of Kelly Weimer.

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    .: posted by Dave 9:28 AM



    Tuesday, April 26, 2005

    Tragedy at Southern Adventist University:

    It's been a rough year at my alma mater. First, a plane crash that kills several Conference members, and then this morning, this:

    An early morning fire in the girls' dorm, Thatcher Hall, has claimed one life, and injured several others. Details are sketchy right now, but it appears the fire started on the third floor near a kitchenette. The deceased student was a 20 year old female from Chicago.

    When I was in school there, I remember students talking all the time about fire alarms going off for various reasons. I can't help but wonder why they didn't go off when intended. And did the sprinkler system engage? If not, why not? It will be days before these questions are answered, but right now, they aren't relevant. What is relevant is that we keep the families affected, and the students and faculty of SAU in our prayers.

    DONATIONS: Southern Adventist University's Social Work Department is coordinating
    clothing donations. Drop off is at Campus Safety. For more information, call
    Social Work at 236-2768.

    UPDATE: The name of the victim of this morning’s fire is third floor resident Kelly Weimer, a junior English major from Woodridge, Ill. Please say a prayer for Kelly's family in this difficult time.

    A community forum has been created to post memories of Kelly Weimer as well as condolences.

    MORE: Pictures of the damage can be seen here.

    News of the fire has made it even up here into the local Hartford newspaper.

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    .: posted by Dave 8:50 AM



    Friday, April 22, 2005

    I read this question in the comments on Michael Silence's blog:

    "How can we realize an impact on oil prices from ANWR drilling when the product of that effort will not enter the supply stream for another ten years?"

    In terms of real output, there will be no immediate impact. However, the market right now is poised for a bubble burst. Inventories have risen due to ramped up production, yet prices have risen too. Why? Institutional speculation. And such speculative practices would be mitigated by the promise of new sources of oil that are not tied to the OPEC cartel. I am no economist, but such authorities as Frederick Leuffer and Larry Kudlow have echoed these sentiments. It's high time policymakers listened.

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    .: posted by Dave 6:10 PM



    Thursday, April 21, 2005

    Reason Number 1,435,988 why my son, and any subsequent children I have will never darken the doorstep of a government school:

    On March 9, according to press reports, a developmentally disabled girl told Mifflin school officials that four boys dragged her into the school auditorium, punched her in the head and face, pushed her to her knees, and forced her to have oral sex with two of them. A crowd of students watched and one student videotaped the incident. The 16-year-old girl's lip was bloodied in the alleged gang attack; dazed and crying, her face swollen, she reported the assault immediately to her special education teacher, Lisa Upshaw-Miller.

    One monstrosity was piled upon another. When the girl's father, who had been summoned to the school by the teacher, insisted on calling police, an assistant principal twice urged him not to call 911, according to Upshaw-Miller. Assistant Principal Rick Watson implored the girl's father to call the non-emergency police line instead of 911 a violation of Ohio state law because "a news channel might tape his daughter and cause her further mental trauma," according to his statement to school investigators.

    Meanwhile, according to witnesses, the school's principal, Regina Crenshaw, shuttered herself in a meeting about bell schedules and curriculum for a half-hour while underlings scrambled to perform damage control.

    Cover your ears, cower in a classroom, and pray that the media stay out of it. It's all about the children, right?

    Witness statements revealed that none of the administrators bothered to call a nurse to assist the girl. Only after the girl's father called police himself did law enforcement come to the scene. By the time the cops arrived, all of the administrators had gone home for the day.

    The principal is now in the process of being fired. The animals accused of assaulting the victim were suspended and may face criminal charges. But two of three assistant principals, including alleged cover-up man Rick Watson, are protesting their measly suspensions over the incident as "unwarranted." Worried as ever about his own hide, Watson said through a lawyer that he hoped to be "spared the public ordeal of a full hearing."


    via Michelle Malkin

    Unwarranted? A school official tries to coerce the father of the victim in this despicable crime to be silent, and he thinks a suspension is unwarranted? If he had any sense, he would resign and apologize for being such a rotten excuse of a principal. Excuse me, assistant principal.

    These sorts of incidents are no longer seen as exceptions. They happen far too often. Our schools have become nothing more than babysitting factories where students are taught moral equivalency instead of moral absolutes. In a world of the latter, the administration would be terminated, the perpetrators would be expelled and criminally charged, and the family of the young girl would be able to move on, knowing that although nothing will ever take away the incident, at least justice was served. Unfortunately, we do not live in that sort of society anymore.

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    .: posted by Dave 1:32 PM


    Sometimes the IT end user really doesn't know what they want. Take this recent case for example where here in my office, a user wanted to be able to implement a form where they could type in the employee's first name, and last name, and the first name would be stored in a table entry for FirstName and the last name would be stored in the coinciding field called LastName. Nice in theory. Bad in practice.

    Why? Well, I asked the user if they would be the primary data entry person. No, she says. Each employee will enter their own name. Red flag went up immediately. See, in practice, not every user will enter their name in as First and Last. Some users have become accustomed to entering Last, First. Or, we have several employees who have more than two names. Willy Mo Jones. Things like that. How does the form logic handle that, I asked? "Mmmm, I don't know. That's why you are the developer.", she said with a grin.

    Here, I decide to lecture about poor UI design, and then I ask, "What's wrong with requiring the user to enter their name, and requiring them to tab into the new field?" No response. This company has so many users who think about requirements in terms of a simple scenario, without relying on common sense to dictate how systems should be designed, not that other companies are any different, but still. Needless to say, the UI was implemented with two form fields instead of one, and not one user has complained.

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    .: posted by Dave 1:02 PM


    Pleasant Thought of the Day:



    There's nothing like watching your children grow up. It is both a slow and a quick process, if there is such a paradox. My son is approaching 18 months of age, and he just keeps growing leaps and bounds. Each night, before bed, I read him 4-6 books, usually ones he chooses, and ones he knows well. One of my own favorites is one where he gets to identify his body parts individually. Hands, feet, nose, eyes, etc. After not very long, my son can now identify nearly all of the parts mentioned. He can't quite say them, but he knows what they are, which, to me, is far more important. During the tedious work days, it's thoughts like this that really motivate me, and put a smile on my face.

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    .: posted by Dave 11:58 AM


    Gripe of the Day:

    There's nothing more frustrating to me than being thrown off schedule. Yesterday morning, while embarking on a journey to the local mechanic, I became inexplicably thirsty, and entered a local convenience establishment to procure a 20 oz. soda. Had I been 2 minutes earlier, everything would have proceeded smoothly, but alas, the gods of timing were not on my side.

    In front of me as I went to make my acquisition were not one, two or three, but four construction workers, each pondering which lottery ticket scheme they wanted to participate in. Mega-Money? No, we never win that one. PowerBall? Nah, odds are too high. Win For Life? Eh, maybe, but let's check the other THIRTY options. Aaugh!

    Finally, after fifteen minutes of listening to the brain trust extoll the virtues of games of chance, they left merrily, conspiring to pool their winnings and rid themselves of their construction job albatrosses. Phthth! Don't quit your day job, boys.

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    .: posted by Dave 11:49 AM


    On Flying:

  • I've decided that I would rather fly with an oxygen mask on than to have to deal with the cabin pressure differential. I was deaf for about 1/2 hour.
  • Who said it was okay to pollute the air with pleasantries such as "my toenail specialist just disappeared and so I have to do them myself"? Who cares? At that moment, I wished I was MORE deaf.
  • To the gentleman in front of me: if a 6'2" person is sitting behind you, it's not a good idea to shove your seat into recline position.
  • People should NOT bring 75 lb carry-ons that they can't lift into the overhead bin.
  • $5 for a headset to watch "Oceans 11"? I don't think so.
  • At least the weather in Texas is nice (although one of the people I met there told me about a month of consecutive 106 degree days in 2002...YIKES!)
  • Remind me to NOT drink a whole can of soda on a 2.5 hour flight ever again, especially when going to Detroit, where the runway taxi time is about an HOUR!
  • Cingular Wireless sucks @ 35,000 feet. Can you hear me now? Fat chance.
  • Lunch? A tiny turkey sandwich, some Ruffles, and M&Ms. Hardly a remedy for my hunger, but more than I expected.
  • Northwest from Detroit to Houston serves the aforementioned meal, yet American from Dallas to Hartford, a longer flight during dinner, serves 2 sodas and some pretzels? Something is wrong here.
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    .: posted by Dave 11:15 AM


    So I've been catching up on my news and contemporary events, and I noticed that two of the primary players for the Tennessee football team have been suspended for assaulting another student, even though the tape of the event in question appears to show that the student threatened the girlfriend of one of the players. It remains to be seen who was the aggressor, but I've been asking myself why the football players were charged, and the student was not. We can continue to maintain that football players should be held to a higher standard (a position that is debatable in and of itself), but as long as that position holds true, drunken students with an ax to grind will continue to seek out these student athletes, trying to prove how "bad" they are. And those "bad" students will get their clocks cleaned, and the student athletes will be suspended or dismissed from the team. It happens every year. It happened when I went to UT. It will happen many more times in the future. At the very least, in ALL cases, the student and the player should be held to the same standard. In many cases, the football player gets off easy. In this case, I wonder if the opposite is not true.

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    .: posted by Dave 10:23 AM



    Saturday, April 16, 2005

    A Well Deserved Sabbath Break:

    Posting has been non-existent in the past two weeks, because, well, between taxes, and interviewing for a new position with a new company, life has just been too hectic for anything else, especially news. Today, I will just relax with my family, and ponder what is there to ponder.

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    .: posted by Dave 9:01 AM



    Friday, April 01, 2005

    A compendium of April Fools' jokes, 2005:
    • ThinkGeek and their USB Fondue Maker, and the "iCopulate" - This sleek and sexy device allows you to mate two consenting second generation or later iPods® together for an experience nobody will forget. Transfer music and files between iPods® in real time without a computer! Have a pal with great iPod® songs you've been wanting to own? Why wait? iCopulate™ now.
    • Scientific American - "For years, helpful letter writers told us to stick to science. They pointed out that science and politics don't mix. They said we should be more balanced in our presentation of such issues as creationism, missile defense and global warming. We resisted their advice and pretended not to be stung by the accusations that the magazine should be renamed Unscientific American, or Scientific Unamerican, or even Unscientific Unamerican. But spring is in the air, and all of nature is turning over a new leaf, so there's no better time to say: you were right, and we were wrong."
    • SQL Server for Linux and XBox - "Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer today announced that Microsoft will be releasing a version of SQL Server for the Linux/Unix operating systems concurrent with the release of Microsoft’s flagship SQL Server 2005 product. The expanded platform and audience for SQL Server will also include the Xbox development platform, paving the way for a completely integrated consumer applications development platform."
    • CNN - "Ms. Wheelchair Wisconsin has been stripped of her title because pageant officials say she can stand -- and point to a newspaper picture as proof." (Note: Apparently, this one was not an April Fool's joke, but it sure as heck sounds like one to me.)
    • Opera Web Browser - "Norway's Opera Software ASA couldn't resist the temptation of an April Fool's joke heralding a breakthrough in peer-to-peer communications.

      The company said it has developed "a platform-independent speech solution for short- and medium-range interpersonal communication."

      In plain language: human speech."

    • The Google Gulp - "At Google our mission is to organize the world's information and make it useful and accessible to our users. But any piece of information's usefulness derives, to a depressing degree, from the cognitive ability of the user who's using it. That's why we're pleased to announce Google Gulp (BETA)™ with Auto-Drink™ (LIMITED RELEASE), a line of "smart drinks" designed to maximize your surfing efficiency by making you more intelligent, and less thirsty."
    • And finally... NASA says they have discovered water on Mars!

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    .: posted by Dave 2:35 PM





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