Digital Choke Daynotes

Daynotes	a daily journal of our activity	Send us email
Digital Choke	an action that is sometimes needed for your computer; also a short techno-story available here.

Sunday, February 16, 2003

Nice day outside today -- partly cloudy, temps in the high 50's (F). Rained last night, left a couple of feet of snow in the mountains, where snow ought to be.

Turkey dinner, had the kids and the in-laws over for dinner. Watched the new "Music Man" on TV, enjoyed it. Don't think that I ever watched the original one all the way through, although I recognized almost all the songs.

Day off tomorrow, yard work on the agenda, probably house hunting. But time for bed now.

Monday, February 17, 2003

Another nice day here, compared to other areas of the USA. Partly cloudy, low 60's (F). So my wife and I went off looking at new houses. It was a nice day for a drive, as long as you stayed away from the people coming back from the mountains. The end of a three day weekend always bring rush-hour-like traffic from about 2pm on.

Jerry Pournelle (famed science fiction writer, regular "Daynoter", always good for some thoughtful reflection), gets a lot of mail, which he posts on his daily journal site. Today's posts include common-sense information on surviving various types of terrorist attacks, mainly biological. (Note that that link may not work next week, but his main page is here.) So all of you put down your duct tape and plastic sheeting and make sure that you read that information.

The main thing is that if you suspect a problem with a biological attack is to carefully move away from the focus of the attack. Most biological attacks will disperse with the wind. So, move upwind from the release point.

Now, my feeble brain sometimes gets confused with 'upwind' and 'downwind'. It might be obvious to you, but not to me. So, genius that I am <heh>, I figured out this rule:

Turn around until the wind hits you in the face. Then go in the same direction as you nose is pointing.

Now, that's easy to remember. I bet if I ask you the rule for 'upwind' a year from now, you'll remember.

And the other rule: "Don't Panic" (Douglas Adams and "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" ). Unfortunately, that's a rule that all those people in the Chicago Nightclub forgot. The result, 21 dead, 57 injured.

"Don't Panic". "Don't Panic". "Don't Panic". What I say three times is true. (The Bellman's Proof.)

Tuesday, February 18, 2003

A couple of readers have noticed problems with my "next week" links. There were actually several problems, relating to bad link definitions for each week's post, and links to the style sheet. I think that I got them all fixed. The style sheets are not exactly what I want, so I need to do a bit of digging into how to make them better. For instance, I really don't like the font that is used for the actual links. I know how to change them, but it affects the appearance of all the links on this page. And I have to find the right combination of colors to allow for links in this part, and in the tables I use for each day.

But, overall, I think I like the design of this page. There is a one-cell table for each day's heading. And the title box at the top is similar in design as the "Digital Choke" short story, so there is that continuity. The moving background (the binary values) in the title box is a favorite. I can't claim credit for it, though. I think I found it in MS Publisher. I did make up the binary background though. It seems to be light enough not to distract from the text, or to make the text hard to read. As always, comments are appreciated.

I am participating in another big project at work to replace a customer billing system. It will be based on the PeopleSoft product, along with a lot of custom work. It will take about 16 months to complete, including moving the historical data from the old system. My part is only to make ensure the overall security of the program's infrastructure. It will eventually be available to the customer via the 'net, and may also include payment through the 'net. Still, a big project.

And you've probably heard about all the credit cards numbers that may have been compromised. The last I heard was around 8 million card numbers of all types (MC, VISA, Amex, Discover) might be affected, including ATM cards. This one is big, folks.

From a information security standpoint, it reminds us that not only do we need to make sure our own 'info house' is in order, but also any of our co-vendors, including our banks. And if your company is thinking about ecommerce (or if you already are), then you need to carefully check out your ecommerce partners to make sure they are doing their job.

Another interesting "24" session tonight. You almost knew that they weren't going to find the bomb (it's not close enough to the end of the season). And, the President's wife has always seemed to have her own agenda. Then there's the survivalist in the woods that has decided to start his own little family down in his little bomb shelter.

And I realized last night that the FX cable channel replays the previous week's episode of '24' on Monday nights. Of course, I realized that too late to catch the show that I missed because of the power outage here. (You might recall that I also forgot the little battery-powered LCD TV that I have here.)

I must be getting old. You'll have to excuse me while I go find the Geritol.

Wednesday, February 19, 2003

Some random surfing, via Google News; the term "GoogleLink" is my own invention. Well, at least I just thought of it. It is used here as the page that shows all the links to a particular news story. I don't know how long that link will last, though; as they say, your mileage may vary.

• They have traced the person that hacked into that credit card processing firm's computer. The hacker evidently grabbed only 8 million credit card numbers (GoogleLink) I was wondering how big a file that would be? Did the hacker use a high-speed connection? Is there a betting line on how long it will take the Feds to track him/her down? (I'm thinking they will know by Friday at the latest, unless the hacker is really clever at covering his tracks.) I would think that the hacker, if smart (and you can't assume that), better be covering his tracks well. I would be running a full wipe on my hard disk, 10 passes, then reinstalling the entire system from scratch. And shredding and burning any printouts. And getting rid of any reference books or materials. And getting a good lawyer. You in 'deep kimshee', sir or madam.
• For the first time, scientists have reached a broad agreement that Australia's oldest human remains - Mungo Man - is 40000 years old, about 22000 years younger than the previous estimate, according to new analyses. Look at these reports in several GoogleLink. Don't you hate it when people think you are older than you really are?
• An Iranian plane crashed, and 300+ people died (GoogleLink). They just happened to be the elite Iranian Revolutionary Guard. The Iranians have been having problems keeping their planes running, since there is an US embargo on plane parts. Do you think the various conspiracy theorists have an idea who did this? I suspect that you'll hear all sorts of that kind of noise.
• Do you think that there was snow on Mars? (GoogleLink) A new theory is that snow melt caused the erosion of Martian Mountains. There is no accuracy to the rumor that there are remains of a snowboard seen at the base of one of the eroded cliffs.
• Have your downloaded your copy of the latest Office 2003 beta? (GoogleLink) I'll bet that Robert Bruce Thompson (another Daynoter) hasn't. His pages are often ranting about Micrsoft products. He has written many good hardware books, and his HardwareGuys site (and his "PC Hardware in a Nutshell" book; the link is to Amazon.com, and he -- not me -- gets a small kickback if you purchase it there) has some very good information on the best hardware to get for your computer system. Go to the HardwareGuys site for some good information on computer hardware, even if you don't buy his book.
• And there was a dog stuck on a chunk of ice in a New Jersey river. (GoogleLink) He's safe now. Took the rescue crew three hours in an 8' boat to get the dog. No, I don't think the dog's name was "Lucky", although perhaps it should be.
• Tired of spam mail? All you have to do is sue them. That will stop them. At least, that's what Microsoft thinks. (GoogleLink). They sued some mail spammers in court today. Yeah, that will work.

OK. I have used the term "GoogleLink" nine times now. I just did a Google search for that term, and came up with 232 hits. Now I wonder -- how long it will take for these pages to be the 233rd? (If you have a guess, send some mail. I'll announce a winner, but no prizes.)

Or, is Google even paying attention to these pages? (Yeah, I've submitted this site to them -- got two hits on "Digital Choke Daynotes". And there are nine hits on "Digital Choke" -- the first two were here.) And can I even use that term without irritating their copyright lawyers? Got 'book' on that bet?

You can probably tell that it's getting late...and time for my medication.

Thursday, February 20, 2003

Yesterday's post had some silliness about Googling and GoogleLinks. Need to make a minor correction. Google shows 25 hits on "Digital Choke", not nine. But my sites (the techno-story and these Daynotes) are still at the top of the list.

Good news on the home-selling front. Accepted an "as-is" offer verbally today, will do all the paperwork tomorrow. Looks like a well-qualified buyer, really motivated and anxious. They want to close in 40 days.

Which means that we've got to start cracking on picking out a new place to live. There are about four different areas around here that we are interested in, which is not really what my realtor wanted to know. They prefer that you concentrate on one area. But we do have our basic requirements figured out, so that will help a bit. One big requirement will be broadband access. Out here in the 'sticks', only dial-up is available. There is satellite available, but latency is a bit of a problem there. You get good download speeds, but upload is still dial-up speed.

It looks like I'll get to go shopping for a HDTV setup, having gotten permission from the financial head of the family. I think that she's letting me do that because of all the new furniture that she wants to buy. She has already identified several items that won't make the move. But I'll counter with a wireless network, properly secured, of course. And a new sound system, of course. That kind of shopping can be fun.

So, the next couple of months are going to be quite busy around here. I am really looking forward to the whole packing thing, especially all the junk in the garage. We did almost a full move in 2001 when we got new carpet. You have to pack up almost the whole house so they can replace the entire carpet. We had about 50 boxes of stuff in the garage. This one will be a bit more than that.

So, we're taking tomorrow off from work to go look at possible houses with our realtor. We've got a few ideas from some 'net searching we've been doing over the past few months, so that will help. It should be interesting.

Friday, February 21, 2003

No, your eyes are not playing tricks on you. Slight changes in the formatting here. Do you like the new text size? Too small, too big? Let me know. Since the font stuff is in a style sheet, it's easy to change. I sort of like this size; it looks a bit cleaner, at least in my browser.

I also made some changes to the main index page. It's using the same style sheets as here. Has a few extra links on it: a weekly index page (whcih I still have to build), and an timed automatic load of the current page. I have to plan that one carefully so that any external links to stuff here will still be valid as a new week comes along.

Major progress on the house-hunting project. Spent most of the day wandering around a couple of neighborhoods, looking for a new place to live. (A good idea, since the buyers accepted our counter-offer today.) Found a really nice four-bedroom, two story almost-new house in a good area. Liked it so much we gave them an offer. Haven't heard the seller's response yet, but are pretty confident that they will accept it.

The wife is pretty excited -- it's time to go furniture shopping! I asked if I could go with her (not!). But my plans are for DSL, with a wireless network (with good security). The house already has DirecTV, with wiring to the family room and bedroom. No integrated network wiring, but really don't need that with wireless. And, I will be doing some major research on an HDTV system with LCD monitor (a big one, with any luck). Ideas are welcome on either one of those subjects.

The nice thing about the offer we got for this house is that it is 'as-is'. I don't have to do any major work outside to keep the house pretty for potential buyers. But, I do have to start some major cleaning. So, tomorrow's plan is to grab a whole pile of boxes, some packing tape, and start attacking the garage. That will probably require a few "Lone Ranger" trips.

So, tonight's tasks are to do a bit of relaxing, watch a bit of TV ("CSI" is on tonight) and get a good night's sleep.

Saturday, February 22, 2003

"There is nothing to see here." -- Zork I

Digital Choke Daynotes