AOL has started refusing mail from my server. Because of their spam problem, they are now blocking mail from any servers that they identify as residing on netblocks associated with dial-up, cable modems, or DSL. The solution to the problem is to use the SBC mail server as a smart host, but I don't know if I want to go that route just to send mail to AOL. In my opinion, AOL is being too draconian in their blocking, and too many legitimate mail servers are now being blocked.
Wednesday, 30 April, 2003. 04:43:38 PM
President Bush is going to announce tonight that the major combat it Iraq has been completed. I think that our troops should never have been sent to Iraq, but now that combat is over, the assessment of the military performance should reflect the fact that relatively few lives were lost in this significant war, and the conduct of the troops was absolutely outstanding. The money that has been spent on improving the capabilities of the military has not been wasted because it was that improved capability that prevented vast numbers of lives on both sides from being lost.
I have received a few mails from people in the past few months wondering if I supported our troops. Of course I do; I'm a nut for all things military. I keep on top of all military developments both political and technological, and it pleases me to see how well our troops have done. I am also pleased that the code of honor that they live by has been held to a high level. It is a good thing that our soldiers can come home knowing that they did their jobs well, with honor, and deserve to come back to a country that respects their service.
That doesn't change the fact that I consider the war in Iraq to be an unnecessary one, that Saddam Hussein could have been contained much like Kadaffi was contained by Reagan in the 1980's, and that there are greater threats to national security that have been wrongly pushed aside. None of that reflects on the military though.
Wednesday, 30 April, 2003. 02:26:50 PM
Former Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf is back in the news. Apparently he didn't commit suicide as some have speculated, but he's been holed up in his aunt's house in Baghdad. Right now he supposedly wants to surrender to American forces, but they don't want to arrest him because he's not on the list of wanted government officials. I've also read that "Baghdad Bob" has been offered jobs on American TV, because it's obvious that he has a star quality about him. He's still very popular in the United States because of his hilarious news conferences.
Tuesday, 29 April, 2003. 10:33:27 PM
Total spam count so far this year: 1741 spam e-mails received. I don't have my statistics scripts coded yet, so I don't have any effectiveness rating on my filters, but I estimate it be greater than 98%, with ZERO false positives so far. I consider it so reliable now that I am not in the least bit worried that a good mail might be accidentally classified as a spam.
Tuesday, 29 April, 2003. 05:08:50 PM
The Iraqi lawyer who helped Jessica Lynch has been granted asylum in the United States. This is a good move, because he went far out of his way to help her, and put his life and the life of his wife and child in danger to do it. I just hope that he's happy here, and that eventually the situation in Iraq will become safe enough for him to return home if he wants to do that.
Tuesday, 29 April, 2003. 01:39:19 PM
ABC New Report
Oh hey, looky there. Bush attacked Iraq because of 9/11. But none of the hijackers came from Iraq, and no connection has been proven from Iraq to the hijackers.
So, how did Bush pick Iraq to knock over? It appears that he picked Iraq because 1) Hussein was asking for it, and 2) Iraq is filled with Muslims (i.e. terrorists). Perfect place to make his point. This is very bad news, but it's not unexpected. Many many people critical of the war have been saying this all along, and now the suspicions are confirmed. GW has ignored the problems elsewhere in the world in favor of empire building in the Middle-East.
Tuesday, 29 April, 2003. 02:28:17 AM
Elaine Steinbeck died on Sunday in Manhattan, aged 88. She was the wife of John Steinbeck, and was born in Austin, Texas on August 14th, 1914.
Sunday, 27 April, 2003. 10:50:15 PM
Photos of the anole, Flugtag, dogs, and the sidewalk grouting are up. Flugtag was a total waste of time because nothing could be seen from the spectator area.
Friday, 25 April, 2003. 04:03:49 PM
18 cases of SARS reported in New York City.
Wednesday, 23 April, 2003. 07:05:49 PM
incestuous amplification - a condition in warfare where one only listens to those who are already in lock-step agreement, reinforcing set beliefs and creating a situation ripe for miscalculation.
Wednesday, 23 April, 2003. 03:50:11 PM
The SARS virus has mutated in China, with increasing numbers of younger people dying. The virus is now attacking the intestines, and people are developing diarrhoea and organ failure besides pneumonia.
Wednesday, 23 April, 2003. 01:04:07 PM
The SARS numbers are 3,947 reported cases, with 229 dead. The death rate has been updated by the World Health Organization to 5.9%. But when I calculate the percentage from those numbers (as reported on CNN) I get 5.8%.
Tuesday, 22 April, 2003. 02:41:18 AM
I'm done tinkering with my website for now, and I'm satisfied with what I have. It renders properly on both Mozilla and IE6, with the exception that the photo album displays the photos in the wrong place on IE6. That's not a concern to me, since my guess is that a majority of the people hitting my page are Mozilla users (some of the IE6 hits are spoofs to get around brain damaged sites). The photos are there for IE6 folks, but it doesn't look as good. Eventually Microsoft will fix their bugs and the page will look OK.
Tuesday, 22 April, 2003. 12:52:26 AM
China's SARS number stands at 458, with 20 deaths. Previously, they said they only had 37 cases. Another 100 could be added to that total soon.
Monday, 21 April, 2003. 09:58:14 PM
The website is now converted to CSS, and I like how it looks. I might tweak it a bit more though. Maybe dress up the header a bit.
Monday, 21 April, 2003. 01:01:05 PM
I am going to investigate using cascading style sheets on this website. Right now my scripts generate plain old HTLM for each page. So far, this has worked well. One of the purposes of this site is to provide a place for me to tinker, so I'm going to tinker with CSS just for the fun of it. I may also update the design of the site to something a little fancier, but still with an emphasis on text and small page size.
Monday, 21 April, 2003. 12:57:07 PM
According to Health Canada's website there are now 304 suspected or probable cases of SARS in Canada. Those numbers were last updated on April 18th.
Sunday, 20 April, 2003. 11:41:29 PM
When I was asked to make this address I wondered what I had to say to you boys who are graduating. And I think I have one thing to say. If you wish to be useful, never take a course that will silence you. Refuse to learn anything that implies collusion, whether it be a clerkship or a curacy, a legal fee or a post in a university. Retain the power of speech no matter what other power you may lose. If you can take this course, and in so far as you take it, you will bless this country. In so far as you depart from this course, you become dampers, mutes, and hooded executioners.
As a practical matter, a mere failure to speak out upon occassions where no statement is asked or expect from you, and when the utterance of an uncalled for suspicion is odious, will often hold you to a concurrence in palpable iniquity. Try to raise a voice that will be heard from here to Albany and watch what comes forward to shut off the sound. It is not a German sergeant, nor a Russian officer of the precinct. It is a note from a friend of your father's, offering you a place at his office. This is your warning from the secret police. Why, if you any of young gentleman have a mind to make himself heard a mile off, you must make a bonfire of your reputations, and a close enemy of most men who would wish you well.
I have seen ten years of young men who rush out into the world with their messages, and when they find how deaf the world is, they think they must save their strength and wait. They believe that after a while they will be able to get up on some little eminence from which they can make themselves heard. "In a few years," reasons one of them, "I shall have gained a standing, and then I shall use my powers for good." Next year comes and with it a strange discovery. The man has lost his horizon of thought, his ambition has evaporated; he has nothing to say. I give you this one rule of conduct. Do what you will, but speak out always. Be shunned, be hated, be ridiculed, be scared, be in doubt, but don't be gagged. The time of trial is always. Now is the appointed time.
John J. Chapman
Commencement Address to the Graduating Class of Hobart College, 1900
Sunday, 20 April, 2003. 10:48:40 PM
Salon is running an article about John Ashcroft, the Patriot Act, and how he is using it to make American citizens disappear. In a nutshell, the Patriot act gives him authority to conduct searches and detain persons as "material witnesses" without having any accountability to Congress or the courts.
Sunday, 20 April, 2003. 06:05:02 AM
China has been convering up their cases of SARS. The WHO inspected hospitals in Beijing, but Time has reported that while the inspectors were in hospitals, large numbers of patients were driven around in ambulances. Now, in a sudden attempt at honesty, the Chinese health officials have announced that they have 402 cases in Beijing alone. Of course, this is the second time that the Chinese have promised to be forthcoming. They promised the first time a few weeks ago. I would not be surprised to find out that the Chinese are still hiding SARS patients, and that they actually have thousands of cases. There is just no basis for trust when games are being played with a deadly disease. The May 1st International Worker's Day celebration has been cancelled to slow the spread of disease.
Saturday, 19 April, 2003. 12:53:23 AM
Tim Robbins recently spoke to the National Press Club. The transcript is online, and it should be read by everyone. I've made it no secret that I was and am against the war, and have been relatively lucky. To date I've only received a couple of e-mails that were brain-dead insulting, or knee-jerk jingoistic. I suppose most of the people that I know are intelligent enough to realize that being against the war does not mean that I am for Saddam Hussein. Tim Robbins paints a different picture of his experience. Because he's famous, and against the war, he's become a big target, just as several other stars such as Martin Sheen have become. I hope he and the others continue to stand up to the bullies that are emboldened by the political climate.
Thursday, 17 April, 2003. 07:42:40 PM
The rebate for my Princeton monitor should show up before June 24th. Ideally, between May 27th and June 10th.
Thursday, 17 April, 2003. 04:58:23 PM
I just realized that my first year of college was almost 17 years ago, when I was 17 years old.
Thursday, 17 April, 2003. 04:18:17 PM
There are some places that have made 17 the legal voting age. I think this is a good idea, but I prefer 16 as the legal voting age. Quite a few 16 year-olds work at McDonalds, and if they pay taxes they should have their say in how the government is run.
Wednesday, 16 April, 2003. 03:05:01 PM
A former executive for Internet ad company DoubleClick has been named the privacy officer for the Department of Homeland Security. This is astonishing, because few companies on the Internet have been so offensive to the concept of personal privacy and control of information as DoubleClick. No fewer than 12 state attorney generals sued DoubleClick for privacy violations, and the executive (O'Connor Kelley) managed to get all of them settled out of court. I suspect that's the real reason she was picked: when the Department of Homeland Security rolls back privacy rights, her job will be to get all the legal obstacles settled as quickly as possible. For more information about DoubleClick and the complaints against it, see Google
Wednesday, 16 April, 2003. 02:49:25 PM
Make your very own deck of Iraqi fugitive leader playing cards. Just print this page on card stock and cut them out. Sand the edges of the deck to make it uniform, and you're done.
Wednesday, 16 April, 2003. 12:58:35 PM
Authorities in Canada have ordered 600 people to stay in their homes after they were exposed to the SARS virus.
Wednesday, 16 April, 2003. 12:54:10 PM
An authorized biography of Neil Armstrong is due to be published in 2005.
Tuesday, 15 April, 2003. 03:17:42 PM
take a little test.
Tuesday, 15 April, 2003. 01:49:52 PM
Iraqi Information Minister Saeed al-Sahaf is reported to have committed suicide, which would be a shame in light of his tremendous popularity in the United States right now. The report is not confirmed.
Tuesday, 15 April, 2003. 12:25:33 PM
Norweigian Cruise Lines is going to buy and refurbish the S.S. United States, a famous ship that set an Atlantic crossing speed record 50 years ago. It's been decommissioned since 1969, and could cost a half billion dollars to refurbish for service. The design accounts for the possiblity of wartime conversion to a troop ship, having a torpedo resistant hull.
Monday, 14 April, 2003. 07:57:13 PM
Here's a comparison ripped from Slashdot about the TiVo versus the Time Warner Cable PVR:
Better Feature Comparison (Score:4, Informative)
by RzUpAnmsCwrds (262647) on Mon Apr 14, '03 05:09 PM (#5731581)
(Last Journal: Mon Apr 07, '03 01:30 AM)
Season Pass (record every episode of a show, even if it moves)
TiVo = Yes
DirecTV/TiVo = Yes
TWC Box = No
Suggustions (programs you may like - like it or hate it)
TiVo = Yes (optional)
DirecTV/TiVo = Yes (optional)
TWC Box = No
Advanced conflict managment (prioritize season passes or equiv.)
TiVo = Yes
DirecTV/TiVo = Yes
TWC Box = No
Two tuners (record two programs at once/record a program while watching a 2nd live program)
TiVo = No
DirecTV/TiVo = Yes
TWC Box = No
Picture-In Picture
TiVo = No
DirecTV/Tivo = No
TWC Box = No
Guide Style
TiVo = Two column, translucent
DirecTV/TiVo = Two column or grid, translucent
TWC Box = Grid, picture in corner
Delete Date/Time (tells you when programs will be deleted to make space)
TiVo = Yes
DirecTV/TiVo = Yes
TWC Box = No
God-Awful Remote
TiVo = No
DirecTV/TiVo = No
TWC Box = Yes
Half-Decent User Interface
TiVo = Yes
DirecTV/TiVo = Yes
TWC Box = No
Monday, 14 April, 2003. 05:56:28 PM
My file, web, and mail server has been up for 142 days without a reboot. There are some out there who have had their systems running for years, but this is a record for me. I usually tinker with the system every once in a while and reboot it. My experience with Linux is that it has never crashed on me. I first installed Linux on my 20 megahertz 386SX with 4 megs of RAM and a 20 megabyte partition in June of 1993, almost 10 years ago. That was version 0.97pl4, and I haven't missed Windows one bit.
Monday, 14 April, 2003. 03:58:57 PM
Possibly 11 buried mobile chem and bio warfare labs have been found South of Baghdad. Hasn't been confirmed though.
Monday, 14 April, 2003. 01:14:09 PM
Yesterday I took some photos of a pretty bright green lizard with a red flap under its chin. The lizard is known as an American anole, and can change color from bright green to brown.
Monday, 14 April, 2003. 01:09:20 PM
The Kitty Hawk and the Constellation are leaving the Persian Gulf, with the Abraham Lincoln following as soon as Nimitz arrives. In the Mediterranean, the Roosevelt and the Truman will probably be sent home as well.
Monday, 14 April, 2003. 01:58:54 AM
The influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 killed more people than were killed in all the years of World War One (between 20 and 40 million). The death rate from that flu was 2.5%, a full percentage lower than SARS. Approximately 26% of all Americans contracted that flu, and 675,000 of them died. The average life expectancy in the US was depressed by 10 years. The dead piled up so fast there was a shortage of coffins and gravediggers - 200,000 dead in October of 1918.
Monday, 14 April, 2003. 01:44:16 AM
The total number of SARS cases is now about 3000, with a grave assessment of China's situation. This disease is shaping up to be as bad as anybody's nightmare, and there's much talk about the 1918 flu. Not much is known about the disease, but a Linux cluster has been used in Canada to sequence the virus for study. If this disease spreads as easily as a cold or flu, and there is some indication that it does, then it's possible that the majority of people will eventually get it. This would be a catastrophe, because the death rate is about 3.5%. The disease isn't contained in Asia, and could eventually kill tens of thousands if it spreads into the general population. If every person in an extended family of 30 people contracted SARS, then there would be on average one funeral in that family.
Sunday, 13 April, 2003. 11:53:25 PM
At long last Rumsfeld announced that the next task is the search for weapons of mass destruction. By that he means chemical weapons, I presume.
Sunday, 13 April, 2003. 06:50:20 PM
A fansite for Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf crashed because it was getting too much traffic.
Sunday, 13 April, 2003. 06:43:05 PM
Today 7 POW's were rescued in Iraq. It looks like all the members of the 507th maintenance company are accounted for.
Sunday, 13 April, 2003. 12:01:18 AM
Today I tiled my front sidewalk with paving brick tile. Photos are in the photo section.
Friday, 11 April, 2003. 02:02:06 PM
Someone on K5 posted an article describing the evil mother of a Japanese friend as a "shinto bitch". I thought that it was an amusing phrase.
Friday, 11 April, 2003. 12:06:05 PM
I think the US Printing Office should start selling these decks of cards.
Friday, 11 April, 2003. 12:02:51 PM
The US Government has released decks of playing cards with the faces of Iraq's most wanted fugitive government and military leaders. These decks went to soldiers operating in Iraq. Saddam Hussein is the Ace of Spades, and Tariq Azziz is the Eight of Spades. I predict that when these decks of cards make it home to the states, they will fetch very high prices on E-Bay.
Wednesday, 09 April, 2003. 03:13:43 AM
The English website for Al-Jazeera is interesting, and it has an amusing fault. At the top is a news ticker that scrolls the wrong way. The text enters the ticker from the left and scrolls off the right. I don't know for certain, but it could be that the ticker code was reused from their Arabic language website. Arabic reads from the right to the left, so the ticker code would work properly in that language.
Wednesday, 09 April, 2003. 12:38:13 AM
My ginger candy arrived today.
Wednesday, 09 April, 2003. 12:35:48 AM
vexillology - the study of flags
Tuesday, 08 April, 2003. 03:07:00 PM
There are some rockets found near the Baghdad International Airport that are suspicious. Tests on them have not been completed, but they are suspected to be chemical weapons. The buried barrels found earlier do not contain any nerve agents or mustard gas.
Monday, 07 April, 2003. 04:56:40 PM
CNN is really confused. Their headline says "Chemicals Found" but that's a silly headline to run because those chemicals have been shown to be pesticides, not sarin.
Monday, 07 April, 2003. 02:07:28 PM
The war in Iraq started because we were told that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Forgetting the fact that chemical weapons are hardly weapons of mass destruction, because of the difficulties of use, I don't see too many people asking where all these WMD seem to be. US troops now cover the entire country, and nothing has been found. A chemical stockpile discovered this week has been determined to be insecticide, not sarin and mustard gas.
Sunday, 06 April, 2003. 12:48:03 AM
Something interesting from my logs. I wrote a few days ago that everyone is wondering if Jessica Lynch was tortured by the Iraqis while she was a POW. Right now, the top searches that reach this site are about that:
Top 20 of 146 Total Search Strings
# Hits Search String
1 110 29.33% jessica lynch torture
2 34 9.07% jessica lynch tortured
3 19 5.07% jessica lynch
4 9 2.40% pfc lynch
5 7 1.87% linux device drivers
6 6 1.60% pfc jessica lynch
7 5 1.33% jessica lynch abuse
8 5 1.33% jessica lynch sexual
9 5 1.33% lynch tortured
10 5 1.33% torture of jessica lynch
11 5 1.33% was jessica lynch tortured
12 4 1.07% car wreck
13 4 1.07% jessica lynch lawyer
14 4 1.07% patrick draper
15 4 1.07% torture jessica lynch
16 3 0.80% jessica lynch and torture
17 3 0.80% jessica-lynch
18 3 0.80% jessica-lynch torture
19 2 0.53% car crash
20 2 0.53% chad ludwig
To see all searches that reached this site, click here.
Saturday, 05 April, 2003. 11:25:09 PM
I washed my car and took some pictures.
Friday, 04 April, 2003. 01:04:28 AM
Residents of Hong Kong are universally wearing masks to protect themselves from SARS. Some people are making theirs all pretty.
Friday, 04 April, 2003. 12:51:13 AM
This is a scan of the wrapper for the Ting Ting Jahe ginger candy that I ordered. My order of 10-7 oz. packages is the equivalent of 35 of the 2 oz. packages that I bought in Santa Fe. I'm going to have more ginger candy than I know what to do with.
Friday, 04 April, 2003. 12:15:37 AM
The rescue of Pfc. Jessica Lynch was made possible by the heroics of many people. Special forces who raided the hospital, regular Marine forces who staged a fake attack to draw attention away from the hospital, and the information given by an Iraqi lawyer named Mohammad who saw Jessica in the hospital and resolved to help her any way he could.
Thursday, 03 April, 2003. 11:54:36 PM
The Goodwill Computerworks vintage computer museum has re-opened. They have security cams in there now to keep people from stealing the exhibits.
Thursday, 03 April, 2003. 04:20:00 PM
There's a Thai Cultural Festival in Austin on Sunday from noon to 5 at Fiesta Gardens. Hopefully, Alex will want to go.
Thursday, 03 April, 2003. 12:35:07 PM
The dramatic rescue of Pfc. Jessica Lynch from an Iraqi hospital where she was held as a prisoner of war has brought up some issues surrounding women in combat. Traditionally women have been held out of combat positions, because there were questions about their ability to do their job, and concerns about their vulnerabilities as POW's, particular suceptibility to sexual abuse. There is information that Pfc. Lynch conducted herself well during the ambush and the subsequent imprisonment. The Washington Post reports that when her unit was ambushed, Pfc. Lynch wielded her weapon and killed several of the enemy, even while her comrades were dying around her. She only stopped fighting when she ran out of ammunition. Her job in the unit was as a supply clerk, and presumably she didn't have the type of POW training that combat units receive. Despite that, she did as well in combat and captivity as one would expect any combat soldier with two broken arms, a broken leg, gunshot, and stab wounds to do. The arguments against women in combat would seem to be demolished by Jessica Lynch's performance of her job. She was as tough and as dangerous to the enemy as any man would have been. Everyone is wondering if Jessica Lynch was tortured or sexually assaulted in the hospital prison, and she might have been. Sexual assaults as a form of torture are not restricted to female POW's, and do not even compare to more violent forms of torture. According to news reports, Jessica Lynch joined the Army as a way to raise money for college, where she would be educated as a teacher. She obviously is a person with clear life goals, intelligence, and the desire to see them through. When she joined the Army, she was under no illusions about her status as a soldier, and when she took her oath I don't doubt that she understood what all the possible consequences of that were. In short, she was as competent as any 18 year old man to assess the possibilty of being tortured as a POW, and to declare their intent to serve their country. Pfc. Jessica Lynch fought for her unit heroically, and there's no reason to believe that other women would not do the same thing. It's time to open up opportunities for military women in combat roles.
Wednesday, 02 April, 2003. 04:25:28 PM
The current number of SARS cases in the US is 85, in 27 states. The disease in the US also seems milder than the one in Asia.
Wednesday, 02 April, 2003. 03:45:43 PM
I ordered a bunch of Ting Ting Jahe Ginger Candy from QuickSpice.com and my package shipped today. 10-7 oz. packs of ginger candy imported from Indonesia. I bought 2-2 oz. packs when I was in Santa Fe. The website for the importer is at www.roxytrading.com, but they will only sell 300-2 oz. packs for $100. I don't need 300 packs.
Tuesday, 01 April, 2003. 01:44:55 PM
There's 75 new cases of SARS in Hong Kong today, total is 685. 240 people are going to be moved to quarantine camps. Canada has more than 120 cases of infection.