The upside to FISA and government monitoring

 

Technorati Tags: politics,privacy

Office 2007 and ActiveSync 4.5 Problems

ActiveSync stopped doing a bi-directional synchronization with my Sprint HTC Mogul a few weeks ago (naturally before I went on vacation). 

I never discovered the root cause of the problem, but it may have been a combination of Microsoft Desktop Search 4.0 beta, my Outlook profile, and my being very busy and not sorting out the problem when I noticed the synch stopped working.

Around the same time, Outlook generated an error on opening that stated it was not the default Mail Client, even though the option was properly set.

Problem: ActiveSync would not synchronize Outlook with my HTC Mogul.  Period.  End of story.  Not even thinking considering it.  ActiveSync would connect properly, display the proper count for Contact items (934!), the count would jump to 100/934, then complete and go to Calendar without any Contacts being copied.

I reset the phone, still no joy.

Finally, Sandy suggested I delete the contents of \Windows\Messaging on the device. 

This worked!

Resolving the default client error was resolved by a re-install of Office 2007.  All my settings were saved, including my Outlook Profiles, it was just inconvenient.

I also upgraded the HTC Mogul to Windows Mobile 6.1 (Developers build downloaded from third party site, not HTC or Sprint).  It’s a very nice upgrade and I’ll post after I have it running for a few weeks.

 

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Office,ActiveSync

ScanGaugeII - Trip Computers + Digital Gauges + Scan Tool

ScanGaugeII - Trip Computers + Digital Gauges + Scan Tool

The hypermilers have made mainstream news, and this is A Good Thing. However, I fear too many people did not pay attention in Physics class (if they took Physics at all).

In my Saab 92x Aero (2.0 liter turbo, five speed manual transmission), I have increased my average mileage from 22-24 mpg to 26-28 mpg in mixed driving. We also have a Chrysler Town & Country LXI van that gets high teens in local driving. On long trips, without stuff on the roof (bodies, bicycles, Sears roof carriers), we have gotten as high as 25mpg.

I think I can do better, but I need more information, so I ordered a Scan Gauge II. This is an add-on interface you plug into the existing OBCII interface built into every car after 1996. It offers a superset of the features available in most car computers (trip computer, digital gauges, and a scan tool. The scan tool displays any faults and allows you to clear them as well (check engine light...).

Reviews have been very good and if I increase mileage by 10% in my cars, the Scan Gauge will pay for itself in less than a year.

I will post an update and detailed review after the first month of use.

Slaughterhouse 1945

http://www.newsweek.com/id/143739/output/print

This is a letter from Kurt Vonnegut to his family when he was a POW in Nazi Germany in 1945.   It’s an amazing letter and is included in a collection of writings on war and peace, “Armageddon in Retrospect”. 

The timing of the book, as the US enters it’s fifth year of war in Iraq, is fortunate.  The more people read about the horror of war, the less it is sanitized and glamorized. 

Technorati Tags: Vonnegut,war,books

Lousiana Science Education Act - setting Science Education back 100 years

streamdocument.asp (application/pdf Object)

OK, all you centers of higher education, please note that the next generation of Lousiana graduates will require remedial Science studies before they can compete with other students.

In a baldly political move, they have added language directing teachers to

"...create and foster an environment that promotes critical thinking skills, logical analysis, and open and objective discussion of scientific theories being studied including, but not limited to, evolution, the origins of life, global warming, and human cloning."

Human cloning isn't a theory. And none of these issues are controversial within the scientific community.

As I have stated before, we have Scientific Method. If anyone has a theory, they should publish a paper describing a contradictory view for peer review. If the view is valid, the prevailing theory will be updated to reflect new findings.

Intelligent Design, Creationism, and other 'theories' are not scientific. There have been no scientific papers published for peer review on any of these topics, so they should be limited to religious or philosophical classes, not Science.

Citizen Kubrick | Features | guardian.co.uk Film

Citizen Kubrick - Guardian Film

I used to get the Guardian (and a bunch of other newspapers) each Sunday while we lived in Ireland. It's a great paper, and this article is a great article about Stanley Kubrick, one of my favorite directors.

Dr. Strangelove is one of my favorite films. A discussion spontaneously started about the film at lunch one day. Everyone at the table had seen Dr. Strangelove, in four different languages no less. How many films are there that everyone has seen, and in multiple languages?

The Guardian article has some very interesting details about how Kubrick worked and I'll have to dig around to see if there is a Kubrick biography available.

Register for SolarWinds Exchange Monitor v1.0.1

Register for SolarWinds Exchange Monitor v1.0.1

Very interesting monitor application from Solar Winds that supports Exchange 2000 and 2003 (sadly, not Exchange 2007). It monitors queue lengths and high level performance stats for the server (disk space, CPU and Memory utilization).

The Kozinski mess (Lessig Blog)

The Kozinski mess (Lessig Blog)

Chief Judge Alex Kozinski is in the news a lot this week. Lawrence Lessig is a lawyer who focuses on computer issues and he has posted an insightful article with a lot of details that have been overlooked by traditional television and print media.

My take on Judge Kozinski is that he is a victim of a defendant who has been trying to discredit him. Read the article (and comments) and make your own decision.

I wish the news media had less pressure to publish crap, more insight into technology issues, and better editorial oversight. Maybe next year...

Letters - Evolution and Creationism in Schools - Letter - NYTimes.com

Letters - Evolution and Creationism in Schools - Letter - NYTimes.com

This is a letter to the editor from Ivan Schuller, a professor of physics at UC San Diego. I quote extensively because I feel he summarized my view of Creationism versus Evolution so succinctly.

The scientific method has well- defined rules by which we decide whether a solution to a scientific problem is correct or not. It is not that we believe or have the opinion that a certain solution is correct — we prove it scientifically one way or another.

Thus there are right and wrong solutions that may seem unfair, undemocratic and elitist. But this is how science advances and produces the marvelous technological developments that surround us. And this is not a belief. It is a fact.

Ben Stein's Expelled Exposed: Scientific American

Ben Stein's Expelled Exposed: Scientific American

The article, details Ben Stein interview of Michael Shermer for the movie "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed". I am shocked that Stein, a lawyer and generally intelligent guy, was so focused on supporting ID that it impacted his ability to interview Shermer. Generally, the interview process for journalists is very much like Scientific Method - process the information provided in an interview of a subject matter expert and include it in the movie.

The level of detail about the interview gives additional insight into Stein's decent into madness, and I echo the last sentence - "... will anyone take Ben Stein seriously again?".

Phoenix Lander photographs

Phoenix News

Another awesome picture of the Phoenix landing. This photo was taken from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Other pictures include the crater with Phoenix decending. And an annotated shot of the Phoenix lander, heat shield, and parachute.

Real estate agents debate local statistics

Real estate agents debate local statistics:

Overall, I feel that Realtors lobby to protect their vested interests. However, this article, from Press of Atlantic City includes an interesting quote from Bruce E. Breunig. I commend him for his insight and honesty.

"Bruce E. Breunig Jr., broker at Century 21 Alliance in Margate, admitted that 'we Realtors remain part of the problem. We blame the media for fueling the downturn and try to counterbalance it with our own positive spin.'

Breunig had a theory as to why the NAR survey shows rising prices locally that real estate agents aren't seeing.

The Realtor survey tracks median home prices, the price at which half of all sales were for more, half for less.

The subprime mortgage crisis and subsequent credit crunch have made it far more difficult for low-end buyers to get a mortgage, he said, which has reduced the number of low-end sales. The homes that sell are then disproportionately from the upper half of the market, artificially raising the median price.

The other survey with local home prices, from the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, avoids this kind of distortion by tracking price changes at particular properties.

For the fourth quarter of 2007, the OFHEO survey said Atlantic City area prices fell 1 percent, even as the Realtor survey showed them rising 10.7 percent in the same period."

The Phoenix Mission - photos from Mars

I don't have time to comment yet, but The Phoenix Mission is awesome.  There was minimal coverage on the news (in my opinion), but the photos from the University of Arizona site are incredible.

As a kid, I got up early and watched every space launch.  When Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, I thought the video was too good to be real, and at first I thought it was some form of animation.

I only hope that in 2008, there are still kids with that level of interest who seek out sites like this and watch the NASA channel (cable TV or online...).

Technorati Tags: science,space,Mars,photography

Olympus W-10 Voice Album Software

I just went on a search of the Internet to find software for my Olympus W-10 digital recorder and camera.  I found some rip-off usb-drivers.com download site that requires you to register for dozens of what appear to be SPAM sources.  BTW - I registered Karl Rove at whitehouse.gov and that appeared to work, but even then I got into a circular loop and never got to the driver download.

Anyhow, to make sure this doesn't happen to anyone else, I found my original driver CD and Zipped all the files so everyone can have them.

BTW - these are not available on any Olympus support site, and I realize this device is at least 8 years old, so I'm posting them for general consumption and will contact Olympus.

Olympus Voice Album W-10 Software

Technorati Tags: software,hardware,drivers,download

Ride of Silence - Mount Laurel, NJ

Ride of Silence is a silent, slow ride in honor of those who have been injured or killed while cycling on public roadways. 

I'm leading a Ride of Silence in Mount Laurel, NJ.  We will meet in the corner of the Shop-Rite parking lot at the intersection of Union Mill Road and Elbo Lane.  I posted a Ride of Silence Ride on my Ride List list.  It is currently 11 miles, and I may cut it down under 10 miles, but it will be some variation of the ride posted and it will be on rural roads with relatively light traffic.

It is suggested that we wear black arm bands on the ride and I require that all participants wear a helmet.  The ride is scheduled for twelve miles at a target speed of 12mph.  Think of this ride as meditation and reflection.  The ride is for anyone and everyone who rides a bike, and the ride will be short enough and flat enough that you can ride just about any bike - hybrids, mountain bikes, single speeds, cruisers.  Kids are welcome as well, but if they are under 18, a parent should ride with them.  My daughters and possibly the local Scout Troop may participate.

If a lot of people show up on Wednesday, we may split the ride up into 2-3 groups for safety.

DATE: May 21, 2008
TIME: 7:00 PM
WHERE: Mount Laurel, NJ

Towne Square Center
892 Union Mill Road
Mt. Laurel, NJ 08054

 

Technorati Tags: bicycle

Gas Prices - what's the fuss?

Businesses are significantly impacted by the price of gas, particularly trucking, but I am tired of hearing news outlets incessantly beating the drum about the price for regular gas.

I maintain that for every dollar increase in the price of gasoline, the cost to the average consumer is $50 per month.

The average person in the United States drives 12,000 miles per year.  The average car gets 20 mpg.  At this rate, they buy 600 gallons of gas per year.

12000 miles per year/20 miles per gallon = 600 gallons/year

The price of gas has increased about $1 per gallon since last year, so this is $600 per year or $600/12 = $50 per month.

I'm more concerned about the increase in the price of cream for my coffee, which has almost doubled in the past year.  Bread and other staples have increased at an alarming pace, and quite frankly, I spend quite a bit more on food than gasoline in a month.

$50 per month is less than the cable bill for most households.  $50 per month is less than my than my home water/sewer bill. $50 per month is less than I spend on coffee.

Every time I see the news on TV, they lead with the price of gasoline.  I don't care about the price of gas, I care about health insurance, food, education, and my local taxes.  $50 per month is a rounding error on my monthly budget, not something that I need to hear about every night.

 

Technorati Tags: economy,energy,news

:: rogerebert.com :: Answer Man (xhtml)

:: rogerebert.com :: Answer Man (xhtml):


Roger Ebert has had multiple, disfiguring surgeries to treat his recurring cancer. He is disfigured from the cancer and surgeries, but he is still a public figure, and I think its a powerful message for people.

"Q. Readers want to know if the Movie Answer Man is too PC to review 'Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed'?
Ruddy Spencer, Tucson, Ariz.

A. The last I heard, it is not considered Politically Correct to agree with Darwin. I think it is more like, oh, intelligent."

Exchange Server 2007 Prerequisite Updates

Exchange Server 2007 Prerequisite Updates

This is a good overview of the Exchange 2007 pre-requisites for the various Exchange roles (including Unified Messaging, Edge, x86, x64, and Admin Tools).

I have been traveling quite a bit the past month and am using my spare time (what's that?) setting up a virtual AD/Exchange/SharePoint environment on my laptop. The goal is to hone my PowerShell and admin skills and perform proof-of-concept testing.

Katie Begley Passes Her NJ Drivers Exam

The Begley Family congratulates Katie on her achievement and will be issuing a formal warning to drivers and law enforcement agencies in the tri-state area (including NJ, PA, and DE).

The US Government has not released a formal acknowledgement of this event and the United States government's national thread level remains at Elevated, or Chartreuse.  There has also been no reaction from US financial markets .

Katie excels at parallel parking and she invites small children and pets to return to the Virginia Lane Park and Parallel Parking Test Zone in Mount Laurel starting this afternoon.

Geico will be notified this evening, and our umbrella coverage will be increased accordingly.

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed - Movie - Review - The New York Times

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed - Movie - Review - The New York Times

One of the sleaziest documentaries to arrive in a very long time, “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed” is a conspiracy-theory rant masquerading as investigative inquiry.

 

I haven't read a movie review in the NYT that was quite this direct. Although I admire Ben Stein as a writer and his business sense, I feel he has either been led astray, or lost his mind. His participation in, and support for "Expelled" is a public disservice and humiliation.

My one observation and request for anyone who backs (un)Intelligent Design, or Creationism, is to ask them to submit a scientific paper supporting thier view for peer review and publication. That's it. To date, no one has published any paper supporting ID. I have only read statements to the effect that it is futile because the scientific community is out to get them.

That is crap, and there are lots of examples of papers published that initially were scoffed at, but after peer review, found to be credible. One example was a scientist, Barry Marshall, who believed that some ulcers were the result of bacteria in the stomach and they could be cured through the use of antibiotics. The researcher infected himself, documented the process, and found that antibiotics cured the self-inflicted ulcer. This was sometime around 1984.  In the early 90's, one of my co-workers at the time had the same treatment (which was experimental} and she had to shop around for a doctor who would treat her.

Update to my original post.  I added Barry Marshall's name, the date of his original research, and a link to Expelled Exposed.

Drivers and Downloads

Drivers and Downloads

Dell D630 BIOS update. I applied because I have been having off and on issues with my Wireless 1390 subsystem, particularly when it goes in and out of sleep mode.

Fixes/Enhancements
------------------
1. Improve compatibility with Dell Wireless 1390 & 1490 Dell WLAN.
2. Improve setup and HD password operation.
3. Fixed: System Hangs on Resume from S3 with Driver Verifier enabled.

Amit Pawar - Infrastructure blog : Windows Server 2008 and Exchange 2007

Amit Pawar - Infrastructure blog : Windows Server 2008 and Exchange 2007

I was drafting a virtual lab configuration and found Amit Pawar's Infrastructure blog and article about using Windows 2008 with Exchange 2007.

Awesome article that points out several performance and configuration options that are only available when you install Exchange 2007 onto Windows 2008.

- Multi-subnet failover clusters
- Faster log file shipping (SMB version 2 support in Win2008)-
- Self-healing NTFS = fewer file corruption problems
- Easier deployment - fewer hotfixes and OS pre-requisite updates like .Net Framework 2.0
- IPv6 Support
- Scalability - Windows 2008 doesn't limit the server to an RPC connection limit of 64K connections. This is HUGE when you try to throw thousands of users on a single server. Windows 2008 now supports 64K RPC connections per IP address.

Amit includes reference links for the various features.

The difference between RAID 0 and RAID 1

QDB: Quote #854608

This is too perfect to not post.

sterano: Whats the difference between Raid_0 and Raid_1?
Steve: In Raid_0 the zero stands for how many files you are going to get
back if something goes wrong.

June Fabrics PDA Technology Group

June Fabrics PDA Technology Group

This is a post to plug PDA Net. Sprint and Verizon want you to purchase a monthly subscription to use your cell phone as a modem. I object to this fee because I'm already paying for a data service and this is a built-in feature of most modern smart phones.

Well, with PDA Net and data service from your provider, you don't need the monthly add-on service. Tether your cell phone to your laptop, enable the connection, and you have Internet access from any place you can get a cell signal.

I was getting 1-2Mbps from Verizon using my Moto-Q phone. With my Mogul (with the latest ROM upgrade) and Sprint, I should get 3G speeds.

Evolution of religious bigotry - Los Angeles Times

Evolution of religious bigotry - Los Angeles Times

Jonah - What planet are you living on? A 'Darwin Fish' is religious bigotry? How about freedom of speech?

I am a Christian.
I attend church on a weekly basis, and I volunteer at my church, and my community.
I am also a scientist and engineer.

As an engineer, I am offended by your bigoted op ed piece in the LA Times. You obviously don't understand the scientific community.

The Darwin fish is a reaction by all sorts of people (including  scientists and engineers) to the religious community's attempts to interject religious opinion into scientific curriculum in our schools. Despite the fact that there have been 0 (zero, nada, none) papers submitted for peer review to support Creationism (aka (un)Intelligent Design).  

It's as simple at that. Religious groups can't have it both ways. If you want to meddle with separation of church and state, you have to suffer the consequences. The "Darwin Fish" is not religious bigotry, it's a response to religious incursion on scientific education.

If you don't like it, move to Turkey.

I don't have a Darwin Fish on my car, but I'm ordering one today. I'll mail you a picture. It will go right under my Darwin Has a Posse sticker on the back of my car.

The first April Fool's Day spoof

Gmail: Google's approach to email

GMail Custom Time - you have the option of sending mail using a custom time and date, for up to ten messages of your choice.

Pretty good, but it's still early in the day. Who will have the best April Fool's Day send up?

Introducing Gmail Custom Time^TM

Be on time. Every time.^*

How do I use it?

Just click "Set custom time" from the Compose view. Any email you send to the past appears in the proper chronological order in your recipient's inbox. You can opt for it to show up read or unread by selecting the appropriate option.

Is there a limit to how far back I can send email?

Yes. You'll only be able to send email back until April 1, 2004, the day we launched Gmail. If we were to let you send an email from Gmail before Gmail existed, well, that would be like hanging out with your parents before you were born -- crazy talk.

How does it work?

Gmail utilizes an e-flux capacitor to resolve issues of causality (see Grandfather Paradox).

How come I only get ten?

Our researchers have concluded that allowing each person more than ten pre-dated emails per year would cause people to lose faith in the accuracy of time, thus rendering the feature useless.

Their findings:

N = Total emails sent
P = Probability that user believes the time stamp
φ = The Golden Ratio
L = Average life expectancy

MSN.COM - W32.Spybot.Worm in the wild

There appears to be some malware in the wild.  I received a MSN note from one of my MSN Contacts this afternoon.  The FQDN for the link was gallery.aokhost.com and the link includes my MSN e-mail address and it has a sentence about "Hey, is this really your pic?" or a similar phrase.  The URL includes a PHP script and the users MSN contact (username@domain.com).  It appears the PHP script loads the malware and the user Contact is used only to lure you to click the link.  The malware is dumped to C:\Windows\msn.com on my Windows XP Pro system.

I am running Symantec Endpoint Protection 11 with current virus definitions. It appears to have run once, then SEP11 quarantined it, but a system restart was required to fully remove it from my system.

It does not appear that any other damage was done to my system other than hitting my Contacts and spawning the IM's to everyone on my list.

Symantec Corp Edition 10.1 with current virus definitions will remove the infected file after a system restart.  The Symantec link is below and they have a whole page of remediation tools for W32 malware.

http://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2003-053013-5943-99

Technorati Tags: malware,MSN,software,antivirus

YouTube - Bush booed at 2008 Nationals home opener

YouTube - Bush booed at 2008 Nationals home opener

I think the title says it all. All the bone heads that wanted a president "they could have a beer with..." got what they voted for...

MacBook Air Parody

YouTube - MacBook Air Parody

It's already well established that I'm not a big fan of Apple Stores. I'm still put out that the manager of the Marlton, NJ store manager who wouldn't let me take photos inside the store. I just wanted to prove to my friends that I was in your store, you little freak show. Also, they need to rename the "Genius Bar", or staff them with real geniuses, at least someone smarter than our dog (who eats rabbit poo in the backyard and considers it a fine dining).

Anyhow, this is a brilliant parody from the folks at The Bureau (even though the video wasn't running when I tried it).

Recycling symbols explained

This is a good article that walks you through the triangular symbol containing a number between '1' and '7'. From PETE (polyethylene terephthalate) to "Other".

In our NJ neighborhood, they recycle 1 and 2 - polyethylene terephthalate and HDPE (high density polyethylene). One thing I haven't found out, but will Google now) is where they have two numbers on one container. I suspect the second number is for the cap or lid, but it's not very clear.