Diary of a Wolfeman

MSNBC reports on how a Federal judge has ruled those stupid stickers in Georgian biology textbooks stating that “evolution is just a theory” be removed.

ATLANTA – A federal judge Thursday ordered a suburban Atlanta school system to remove stickers from its high school biology textbooks that call evolution “a theory, not a fact,” saying the disclaimers are an unconstitutional endorsement of religion.

“By denigrating evolution, the school board appears to be endorsing the well-known prevailing alternative theory, creationism or variations thereof, even though the sticker does not specifically reference any alternative theories,” U.S. District Judge Clarence Cooper said.

C’mon, folks. The Constitution grants us freedom of religion, which also grants us freedom from religion. Public schools should be science-based in their curriculum – this is the only way to ensure a fair education to everyone, regardless of their religion (or lack thereof). If you want your children to be educated in a religious manner, put them into a religious school.

This story reports that a New Jersey think tank has built the prototype of a smart gun, a weapon that uses biometric identifiers to decide whether or not you can use the weapon.

Since 1999, NJIT has spearheaded efforts to develop a personalized handgun that can instantly and reliably recognize one or more pre-programmed authorized users. To date, the New Jersey legislature has awarded NJIT $1.5 million for the project.

Corzine called the NJIT’s dynamic-grip technology cutting edge and said that it represented a really positive step forward in public safety. “NJIT is involved in important life-saving research,” he added. “There is no question that manufacturing handguns with advanced technology to limit operation can save lives. No child could pick up a gun and pull the trigger. The gun just won’t work, and that’s how it should be.”

This is gun-control I can stand behind 100%, since it effectively makes it impossible for someone to take your weapon and shoot you with it. Mind you, this does not eliminate the most effective means of gun safety, it merely supplements a solid education in gun use. While it’s nice that unrecognized users like your kids cannot use the gun, it is still best to educate them about gun safety and keep the weapon properly stored when not in use.

This will also put a small kink in the works for gun thieves, since they would have to take an additional step of disabling the biometric sensors before being able to use or sell the gun. If designed properly, the manufacturer could make this a time-consuming and expensive operation.

Graumagus posted about yet another new IE security hole, and some of his readers had the following to say:

yea, but I like IE. And I’m not so found of Mozilla. And since I keep my redundant firewalls, and virus support I really haven’t had any real problem. I know a bunch of puter geeks keep saying they like Mozilla, thus I should blindly like it as well.

Well Dammit, I refuse to change and you can’t make me! :)
Posted by: contagion at January 11, 2005 02:02 PM

I can agree with your not liking the Mozilla browser – it’s almost as bloated as IE. Firefox, on the other hand, is it’s faster, lighter little brother and you really should give it a try for a week before giving up on it. Of special interest may be the tabbed browsing, which allows you to open new pages in the same browser, rather than launching a complete new instance. This saves you alot of RAM overhead vs. IE. For instance, IE in two windows (MSN and Slate) takes up 28. 3 megs of RAM, down to 26.8 when I closed Slate. Firefox, with my blog entry, Grau’s blog, MSN and Slate takes up only 23.3 megs of RAM, and blocked the stupid pop-up window that Slate launched.

Okay, I admit that’s a close comparison, but I’m the kind of guy who bitches about things like that :)

My favorite feature is the ability to open all the pages in a bookmarks folder in tabs at once – mainly so I can cut-n-paste stuff from other sources here while editing my blog on an older laptop in the garage.

I’ll be the very first to admit that I have very, very little in the way of computer acumen. However, when I Googled “Mozilla” for some basic info, the first thing I see in the results is a story dated Jan. 10th “Critical flaw plagues Mozilla”. Not exactly the type of ringing endorsement I want to hear if I’m thinking about changing from what has been (so far, knock on wood), a perfectly good system. I’m always willing to hear other opinions on the subject, though.

Posted by: TDavis at January 11, 2005 05:12 PM

If you had read farther down the article, you would have seen where it said:

“All the latest Mozilla versions are immune”

The exploit is for an older version of Mozilla, and all later versions had already been fixed before the exploit even became known. When was the last time MS published a fix before it had been in circulation for two months?

“… but there also appears to be some dispute as to whether this vulnerability was ever practically exploitable in the first place.”

So they weren’t sure you could actually use this for nasty purposes, and in fact it would only affect the small percentage of people who use this kind of advanced internet lookup. Your average Joe would never have been vulnerable.

The final bit of pertinent info in your decision: at the shop where I work, we charge $70 for a data recovery and $105 to format your disc and re-install Windows, if you have the driver discs. I have done 4 of these in the past week, and all were caused by virus and spyware infections on computers where IE is the only browser. There are three more on the shelf waiting, and we have a 3-5 day backlog.

End rant.

The Little Black Beastie has been not only running poorly lately, it has complained about starting at random intervals, requiring up to three attempts before it fires. The sounds it has made while running led me to believe something may be up with the ignition circuit, so I picked up a set of spark plugs for it today.

Wouldn’t you know it, but the first plug wire I removed came apart in my hand, the crimped end pulled right off. Yay.

Plug 1 came out looking used, but otherwise clean. 2 and 3 came out really dirty and/or oil-covered, and number 4 came out a bit less dirty. Obviously time to replace them eh? Me being me, I was able to repair the first plug wire, but heat damage indicators plus the repair I had to make tell me it’s time for a new set very soon. I’m thinking something in a performance product this time. I’m not looking forward to this, though, since the last time took me most of an afternoon. This model’s distributor is actually a crank sensor mounted on the bottom side of the engine at the crankshaft, which means each plug wire has to be threaded through the restraints from the top front of the engine to the bottom rear of the engine, with me on a creeper. Not my idea of fun.

I also need to look into replacing the valve cover gasket, as that’s where it looks like most of the oil found on plugs 2 & 3 came from. This is a fairly easy job, so no big deal, provided the part isn’t expensive.

After that, though, comes the transmission service the poor Beastie needs. That is definitely going to be on the expensive side of the line…

Wow, what a busy week.

It’s been different, this going back to work idea. I find I suddenly don’t have time during the day to take care of the little things, like trips to the bank or maybe some poking around under the hood of the car to figure out why it doesn’t start on the first try every so often. A small price to pay, I think, for the security of having a job.

We have been really busy, and I’ve consistently had three computers at a time on the bench in various stages of repair. Today I maxed out at 5, but it doesn’t really count since three were waiting for something else to happen. Today’s woes?

-Failed hard drive
-Failed IDE controller
-Lost IDE controller (I hate Dells)
-Data recovery
-Crashed system that turned into a new build because the guy got an iPod for Xmas, and his old system wouldn’t run iTunes

Plus I spent half the day trying to gt a pair of 200GB drives formatted. Ugh!

Still,better to be busy, and I enjoy the work. Except for dealing with blown-up Windoze installs, anyway. It amazes me the crap that people will install on their machines thinking it will be useful. That last Dell had so many toolbars on IE that there was almost no room for content when you finally got to a page. (Not to mention the 15 or so programs running in the systray…)

USATODAY reports on how the Bells are fighting the private expansion of fiber-optic communications across the country.

What it boils down to is that the Bells don’t want to foot the bill for fiber to the home unless the FCC says they don’t have to share it with the competition. Meanwhile, the Bells also don’t want anyone else to lay down fiber networks saying it is too much competition and would drive them out of business if consumers had another option.

Basically, they’re taking a page from Bill Gates’ playbook.

When looked at in a certain light, however, these fiber networks are really the Government’s perview. Take the Interstate Highway project: it was funded largely by the Fed to provide a means for moving troops quickly about the country in time of war. By the same token, the internet itself was fuunded by the Fed and private parties as a means of insuring communication in times of war.

We all know how much communication ‘horsepower’ is provided by fiber-optics, and it seems a natural conclusion that the Fed in general, and the Emergency Broadcast System in particular, could be considered to be the ultimate shareholder in these fiber networks. So my stance is that the Fed should mandate the construction of fiber-to-the-home networks within a given time frame, the same way they have mandated the States to maintain the highway system.

I am not unbiased in this opinion though. 56k dial-up sucks. The average 756k of DSL is better, but low. The 3gb I get with cable modem is tolerable, but the upwards of 30gb a fiber network would provide would be gettin’ somewhere, ya know? And I would certainly love to see the prices drop a bit. Japan pays the equivalent of $15 a month for 30gb speeds, where I pay $55 for 3gb.

Something stinks here…

Today was the first day of my new job, and I am pleasantly surprised. It is a strange concept for me to be employed by a techie and working with other techies. Everything I learned about the operation today made perfect sense to me, and came directly from perfectly logical reasoning.

What a concept!

Sure, there are still a couple of illogical things (most of the techs are anti-AMD for some stupid reason…), but it was very nice to be able to simply step into a job role and be able to go almost directly to work.

No world is perfect though, I suppose. The first task set before me today was to call Symantec’s support line. It seems they have had a problem with their authentication code database, as several brand-new retail packages of theirs have come up with invalid authentication codes. I spent almost two hours on the phone with some jackass in India trying to get him to give me a new code or fix the one I had. His response, of course, was that he could ship me a new copy.

Uhm, fuck off? We retail your product, and you want my customer to wait another three days to get their computer back because you had an internal security problem? I don’t think so. No, you had better re-think that position, or I’ll see if MacAffee has actual Americans on the support line.

So how did my new year start? Rather grogily, as a friend from far away called me just as I was dropping off to sleep to wish me a Happy New Year. It’s ok, dear lady, I won’t hold you in violation of the usual “you had better be bleeding” rule ;)

I was awoken again several hours later with some disturbing news: BtFR called to ask me for a ride home – he had been on his way to go skiing with a friend when he had run afoul of a patch of ice and put his truck in the ditch. The bad news: truck is totaled. The good news: nothing worse than a bruise on either one of them, despite the fact he disobeyed the “shiny side up” rule. Three cheers for American safety engineering! Sure, he’s out some cash, but none of it will be spent on medical bills.

The rest of the day was just your typical routine – watched some cartoons with Pookie, read her a book or two, quick trip to the store for dinner fixin’s, spent some time in a book of my own while she played on the computer. All in all, not a bad day.

Tomorrow will be a bit of anticipation for me, as I start my new job on Monday, and I tend to spend the day before going through all the stuff I think I may need so as to not show up unprepared. Of course, I’ve been doing that for several months now, so this will mostly amount to ironing a shirt and re-checking everything else. Almost everything I will need already exists in my backpack: multi-bit screwdriver, software diagnostics kit, pen and paper for taking notes on their processes at the shop.

The pen and paper will get the most use, since the eventual point of hiring me is to get someone to mind the new store. So, they will be teching me the process they use for tagging incoming equipment to service, billing rates and practices and other administrivia. Then I leave at 1:30 or so for a 2:00 appointment with their HR outsourcer to sign all the paperwork and set up the drug screening (which I will pass).

The hardest part of the day will probably be getting to work less than a half-hour early – good thing I have a book to read ;)

The New Year is fast approaching, and it seems a likely time to sit down and look back at what has shaped my life this past year.

The Bad
Lost my job.
Major breakup.
War.
My brother got wounded in said war.
My fellow Americans not only re-elected an idiot, the idiocy went further to add discriminatory language to my State’s Constitution.
I was forced to go on public assistance to feed my kids.

The Good
Built a decent relationship with a great woman.
My brother was only wounded, not killed.
My kids are healthy and happy and not doing stupid things.
I got by financially, despite everything, with nothing worse than a couple late fees.
I got an “11th hour” job.
I still live in a nice house, in a neighborhood where I don’t feel the need to bring weapons with me when I walk the street.
I know for a fact that my son has learned to handle himself in tense situations and come home in one piece.
My ex didn’t move herself and my daughter 6 hours away.

At this point, the good numerically outnumbers the bad, so I feel I can safely say it was a good year. This next year will be off to a rocky start for me, but should even out into something better by summer time. Now for the tricky part:

Resolutions
In the coming year, I resolve to get at least the CompTIA A+ and Microshaft MCP certifications, the lack of which severely hampered my job-search for the past 9 months.

This past year has reminded me how to live well on a slim budget. In the coming year, I resolve to remember this and make better use of my surplus income by developing a savings plan of some sort to defend against the possible repeat of last year.

I resolve to be less selfish.

I resolve to learn something new whenever possible.

(Ok, that last one is kind of a cop-out…give a guy a break, eh?)

End last post of 2004.

For those of you that weren’t there, you missed out. Big-time. Three words:

Trans
Siberian
Orchestra

Some 7,600 close friends and I trooped on down to the Rose Quarter for what should be for all a Christmas tradition. Most people enjoy classical, but tend to listen to rock. This band lets you do both, in tremendous style. Many of the songs are original compositions, but they also bring new life to old favorites by combining an orchestra with a rock band.

It doesn’t stop there though – they blend musical styles from all over the world. There are chunks of gospel, blues, heavy metal, country and at one point I could have sworn I was listenning to ABBA. Add to that a full-on rock concert lighting and pyrotechnics show and you’re left stunned, saddened, uplifted and amazed. Bethoven himself would have weeped. I know I did.

All of the performers are truly top-notch, but some things stand out more than others:

Al Pitrelli is truly a great guitarist, and it’s a shame he doesn’t get more press. While his own style is distinctive and well-developed, he is also able to emulate with great effect the styles of other greats in his field. Throughout the concert, you hear snippets of Eddie Van Halen, Jimmy Page, Alex Lifeson and others I couldn’t name. Not riffs lifted from their work, but rather their style suited to Al’s music. I swear he was channeling them.

Guy LeMonnier is an operetic-trained baritone the likes of which you rarely hear next to screaming guitars, and it’s something the world needs more of. Even stranger is his ability to sing in other ranges – last year they broke into a few bars of “Stairway to Heaven” for kicks and brought the house to it’s feet.

One of the female vocalists (her name escapes me) is petite to the point of being tiny. She comes out on stage, and as she walks by one of the guitarists you get perspective and see just how small she is – on the outside, anyway. Her voice absolutely filled that arena to the rafters, and not just because of the amplifiers – they just added a little wind for those wings to soar on.

Anna Phoebe is probably the World’s Sexiest Viloinist. Unlike classical violinists, nobody ever taught her to sit still while she plays, and she puts all of her emotion into her art. Keeping her in her chair would be impossible. She doesn’t just wander around the stage though – she stalks it like a Valkyrie, all the while wringing every last note from her instrument with a seldom seen fire. Her style is infectious, too – the rest of the orchestra (Our own Portland Strings) got into the swing of things and cut loose a bit. The cellist was even playing his instrument over his head during a couple of the more powerful songs.

Did I say powerful? That is a bit of an understatement for this show. The encore included a favorite of mine, and probably yours as well. I can’t for the life of me remember the name of the piece, but it’s been used in any number of scary movies and even a commercial – the one with the people on the subway singing it. In any case, mein gott do they pull that one off. The music hits you from all sides, the vocals punch you right on the gut, and to top it all off, the fireballs from the back of the stage blast heat all the way to the back wall of the arena.

If I were the Devil, it would be my theme song.