Not much to report. Spent the day in Ames, taking in the Iowa State Classic where my brother was running. Good work Jeff! He looked a lot like this:
…except he got his hair cut. That pic comes courtesy the front page of DePaulBlueDemons.com. Apparently they thought the combination of “Iowa meet, Iowa kid” a funny one.
After the meet, the family went to eat at La Fuente and then took in Million-Dollar Baby. (I highly recommend both.)
Jeff Gannon / James Guckert
Since the unpleasantness in November, I haven’t been much for the news in general, political news in particular. But I make an exception for The Daily Show, for obvious reasons. I laughed the other day when Stewart made a joke about the reporter who asked Mr. Bush this loaded question at a 26 Jan press conference:
Thank you. Senate Democratic leaders have painted a very bleak picture of the U.S. economy. Harry Reid was talking about soup lines, and Hillary Clinton was talking about the economy being on the verge of collapse. Yet, in the same breath, they say that Social Security is rock-solid and there’s no crisis there. How are you going to work — you said you’re going to reach out to these people — how are you going to work with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality? [emphasis added; see transcript]
I didn’t think of it again until a few days ago, when I came across a Salon story that revealed the questioner, “Jeff Gannon”, had had plenty more to say. Turns out the guy isn’t really much of a reporter, works for an offshoot of a GOP group that isn’t an accredited news organization, and, oh yeah, isn’t even really using his own name.
If that’s not enough, reports also indicate the dude, real name James Guckert, has now quit his faux-reporter job. Some attribute that to the discovery that in addition to having registered domain names such as ConservativeGuy.com, ExposeJesseJackson.com, and DCBibleMarathon.org, Guckert owns HotMilitaryStud.com and MilitaryEscortsM4M.com. And then there’s his AOL page.
Oh, and did I mention this guy was apparently the first reporter to receive the confidential CIA memo naming Valeria Plame as a covert operative?
Who the hell is this creep, and who let him into the White House briefing room for two years?
Until today, I used three methods to download BitTorrent files: the command-line client when I’m accessing my Linux machine remotely, the ABC client when I’m on Windows, and, recently, Azureus.
Today, for the first time, I used the official BitTorrent graphical client. It’s nice, but one particular quirk of the interface really stopped me short: when you click the ‘X’ next to a completed torrent, the dialogue asks “Are you sure you want to remove examplefile.avi?”
It’s a minor thing, but the language tripped me up. It didn’t say “remove from queue”, it said remove the file — and the file wasn’t the .torrent, it was the download itself. Logically, I didn’t expect the program to so easily delete what it had just created, but I paused all the same.
Now, this is open source software, so I can dive right in and fix it*. Since BitTorrent uses the MIT License, I could even re-distribute my new “JSP Approved” version of the program.
This is a small example, I know, but it’s refreshing to know that I can choose software that isn’t a one-way street. If I don’t like it, I can (try) to improve it. That’s the power of a little thing we nerds call Freedom 0.
* Changing line 1500 of btdownloadgui.py, if you’re wondering.
Last year, even though I was lax in updating, this site got in excess of half a million hits. A big portion of that is people who, for some reason, can tolerate my blather on the random topic of the day. For that I thank them!
But there is also another group, a much quieter and less loyal segment. Let’s see if we can guess what they’re after by taking a glimpse at some of yesterday’s top search words:
#reqs: search term
-----: -----------
28: hot guy
23: sexy guy
9: sexy ass
7: david beckham
7: hot guy pics
5: cute guy
3: sexy beckham
3: hot guy pictures
3: david beckham bed
1: gigolo 2 bittorrent[...]
Don’t worry, I’m going to block the IP of that last wacko. But you see what I mean. These people crave their cute sexy-ass hot guys, preferably David Beckham (and if a bed’s involved so much the better!)
So for these poor, underserved souls, I present skater Josh Wald (liberated from here):
Faceless masses, feast your eyes on that face, those abs, that tattoo.
For the rest of you, I’ll be less gay tomorrow. Peace.
Google launched their Google Maps beta today, and it’s impressive. I’ve had a cursory look, and it seems they’ve done a good job of abstracting out clutter while still giving a good sense of major roads, rivers, trails, and rails.
But the thing that really grabs me is the ability to “fly” around the map without forcing the page to re-load. Google has been making some great strides in this area, first with GMail*, which quickly snaps through most of its functions without forcing you to wait for a reload, and now with this mapping ability that permits zooming and panning without a new page. I hope we see more and more of these types of Web applications. Reloading saps productivity, causing delays while the page reloads and jumps around.
Back to maps: Yahoo! Maps also does a good job. While they don’t have the same level of page responsiveness that Google offers, they do have very high-quality contextual information, including nearby restaurants and other businesses, plus they now have real-time traffic (but in a somewhat hard-to-read style, I have to say.) I love using Yahoo’s “get local” feature to find nearby restaurants when I’m in another city.
On the other hand, if you’re taking a drive, your priority is the quality of the directions. Since Google, Y!, and old standby MapQuest (which is looking fairly shabby and ad-choked in this company) all get their turns data from the same company, I doubt there’s much difference in that respect.
I wonder what Google will tackle next?
* On the bizarre off-chance that anyone reading this wants a GMail account but doesn’t yet have one, just send an e-mail to jsp@ (this site) and I’ll hook you up.
Shopping for a new computer? Considering a Dell? Pretend you’re a small business — they have the best prices and allow you to un-check crap such as AOL. It’s simple (just click “Small Business” on the home page) and nobody checks. I thought this approach was common, but B didn’t know it, and now Slashdot is running it as news:
Infoworld’s “Notes From The Field” column this week includes a comment from a reader who found that Dell listed several different prices for the same part. Intrigued, I grabbed the first part number I found (a 512MB memory module #A0193405) and found that the list price is $289.99 which the price offered to “large businesses”. Meanwhile, the GSA/DOD contract price is $266.21 while “home users” find the list-price discounted to $275.49 and “small businesses” fare even better with a $246.49 price. InfoWorld contacted Dell who responded, “Each segment sets its own pricing, and consumers are free to pick the one that�s cheapest.”
I also recommend you look at the Dell SMB unit’s “Outrageous Deals” section, where you can pick up a pretty good computer for under $500, including 2 year on-site service.
For what it’s worth, I have a real love-hate relationship with Dell. I’ve personally been involved in the purchase of at least 13 of them, including 3 which act as my personal machines. They’re a good value, but if I had real dough I’d still go upmarket.
I’m setting up a couple of Cisco 7960 IP Phones, and I’m amused to discover that the last page of the “Quick Reference Guide” includes instructions on how to place a call using the other party’s e-mail address.
My first impression: how cool is that? You don’t have to remember home, work, cell, FAX — just use e-mail for voice or text. It’s like instant messaging, but with an actual phone!
My second impression: oh sweet N.E.J., what kind of an unholy alliance between spammers and telemarketers could this enable? Head for the hills!
The other day, I was subjected to a showing of Taxi on a United flight. Not to be confused with the French film of the same name, which I enjoyed (due to the setting and companionship), this one features Jimmy Fallon and Queen Latifah.
I was talking to my brother about it, and he said that while he was first against the idea of Fallon in feature films, he soon came around. “Look at Rob Schneider,” Jeff said. “He did The Animal and we haven’t had to hear from him since.”
Well I got bad news, brother of mine. Schneider is back, and he’s pissed:
Patrick, I can honestly say that if I sat you your colleagues at a luncheon, afterwards, they’d say “You know, that Rob Schneider is a pretty intelligent guy, I hope we can do that again.” Whereas, if you sat with my colleagues, after lunch, you would just be beaten beyond recognition.
It reads like a personal e-mail, but it’s actually a full-page ad in Variety, according to this writer. (I’d love to give a first-hand scan, but Variety is hella expensive: $300/yr.) Schneider’s ticked that LAT reviewer Patrick Goldstein made a swipe at him:
The other [Oscar-]nominated films were orphans — ignored, unloved and turned down flat by most of the same studios that eagerly remake dozens of old TV series (aren’t you looking forward to a bigger, dumber version of “The Dukes of Hazzard”?) or bankroll hundreds of sequels, including a follow-up to “Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo,” a film that was sadly overlooked at Oscar time because apparently nobody had the foresight to invent a category for Best Running Penis Joke Delivered by a Third-Rate Comic.
You can see above that Goldstein mentions “a follow-up to Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo.” Oddly, Schneider completely misconstrues this as shoddy research:
For the record, Patrick, your research is shabby as well. My next film is not ‘Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo 2.’ It’s ‘Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo,’ in theaters EVERYWHERE August 12th 2005.
If Goldstein (mis-)used that title, I missed it. Just like I’ll miss you, Rob, when you implode in a supernova of suck.
If you’re not using Firefox by now, you’re just being silly. As I mentioned nearly a year ago today, it’s a great way to view the Web, and you don’t have to be a nerd to appreciate that.
Firefox supports extensions, and one of my favorites is Adblock, which does exactly what you’d expect (and more — it can also provide certain Rochester residents with hours of entertainment as they probe for sites with banners to zap, much in the manner that a toddler is entertained by socks.)
A few days ago, PC Magazine ran reviews of 15 extensions for Firefox, includind Adblock. In a surprising move, they demonstrated how Adblock works on their own site. As shown in this screenshot, the authors were able to strip out at least 6 banners from the pcmag.com homepage.
Was the move incredibly gutsy or just pragmatic, borne out of fear that any other publisher would sue if used in such a manner? Your guess is as good as mine. In any event, the idea of a publication encouraging its readers to deprive it of revenue, well, it just brings a smile to my face.
Bonus geekery (since I seem to be doing that this week): The review says Adblock is good to prevent “displaying unwanted images.” True, but that’s not all: with the right rules, Adblock also stops Google text ads and those annoying green link hover ads as well.
Last year, Fox introduced a show called “Playing it Straight,” in which a “sweet, innocent Midwestern girl” appears on a “Bachelorette”-style show, only to learn that some of the 14 males vying for her affections are, in fact, gay. If, in the final episode, she picks one of these men, he walks away with $1 million. If she picks a breeder, they split the dough.
The show was even worse than it sounds (truly, truly bad — especially the woman), but in the manner of that old Woody Allen joke*, I got hooked after the first few episodes. What can I say: there were a few cuties in the cast, and I wanted to know if they played for my team or not.
So what does that have to do with the Internet? Well, I actually watched the show from Australia, a feat made possibly by BitTorrent. But that’s not such a big deal anymore. The twist is that Fox cancelled the show after 3 episodes. (At first it looked like they might “burn off” the rest sometime in the summer, but they never did, despite vague promises that they would “certainly provide any viewer that needs the information with the information of the conclusion.”)
BitTorrent to the rescue, again: a few months later, a viewer who saw the whole series when it aired in Israel created a package of the remaining episodes. I was able to snag it and learn who was who. It was a nice example of the “global economy” working for the little guy for a change.
Now Fox wants to see if it will work for the big guys: two weeks ago, they began offering all the episodes online for $2/pop. It’s interesting to see a broadcaster dip its toes into the pay-per-view market. I hope in a later post to take a look at some of the economics involved in going that route — from a broadcaster perspective. From an invididual perspective, let me save you the time: the series isn’t worth shelling out two bucks, much less per episode.
* “The food was terrible — and such small portions!”
Update [4 Feb 05]: NBC’s testing the download approach as well..
A few weeks ago, someone hijacked the domain name of New York’s oldest ISP, Panix. During the resulting outage, Panix switched its customers to another domain (panix.net) and recommended they change Web site passwords, especially for accounts with an “e-mail me my password” feature. The security steps were necessary because any mail sent to an @panix.com address was diverted to the attackers.
Fortunately for Panix and its customers, they rectified the situation within a few days. But even so, I hope many of those customers are considering adopting encryption.
It’s true that the huge majority of people don’t bother with encrypting their e-mail, and I think that’s unfortunate. With the rise in un-/poorly-secured wireless networks, employers with questionable ethics, and shared computers, I think there are cases when encryption is worth the hassle. And really, when we’re talking about “the hassle”, we’re talking about just a few things: complicated setup, being forced to enter the passphrase to send/read mail, a lack of Webmail support, and an inability to search saved messages.
Most of these can be overcome. I use Enigmail+GnuPG with my Thunderbird installations, all of which are free and work like a charm on both my XP and Linux machines. As for Webmail, I’m keeping an eye on the Portable Thunderbird project, which makes it possible to carry an entire e-mail program on a USB key (bonus geek points: future plans include multi-platform support, so you can jump on a Mac, Linux, or Windows machine without a hitch.) Why bother with Squirrelmail when you can use a full client?
I don’t have any solutions for the search problem yet, though. But even so, crypto is getting easier, and I encourage people to give it a go. Feel free to use me as your guinea pig: here’s my public key, and y’all know the address.
No pithy comments today, just a quick note to say that if you’re using Adobe Acrobat Reader (they’ve actually renamed it Adobe Reader, but see if I care) as well as Windows 2000 or XP, you really should upgrade to version 7 (download — this direct link bypasses the lame Adobe Download Mgr. and Y! Toolbar.)
Where version 6 was a bloated, slow mover that had me scrambling for extensions that allowed me to avoid PDFs entirely, the new 7 is actually… quick. As in, surprisingly, noticeably, definitely quick.
After being conditioned by software companies to expect updates that just make the program marginally more secure, or theoretically more useful (or even reduce its function!) I find something that actually improves the experience to be a nice (and all-too-rare) surprise.
Bonus nerd note: they’re even releasing a Linux version soon-ish, so we’ll see how that stacks up against ggv.
Dear Sir/Madam:
Last Monday, I was on United flight 1146 from Calgary (YYC) to Chicago (ORD). I enjoyed the flight (apart from the cringe-inducing performance by Jimmy Fallon in ‘Taxi’) and commend the crew for managing an arrival substantially ahead of schedule.
I was, however, a bit put off by how the female flight attendant chose to usher us off the plane. Her decision to end the standard “Welcome to Chicago” message with “god bless” made me uncomfortable.
No doubt she meant well, but this sort of religious sentiment really has no place on a major carrier such as United.
I’m sure I need not tell you that the flight was no doubt made up of those from many faiths, as well as those who choose to live their lives based upon proven facts. I know United recognizes this diversity when even this feedback form includes an impressively extensive list of titles, including non-Christian ones such as “Imam”, “Swami”, and “Rabbi”.
Given this range of worldviews, I hope in the future United will leave the religious messages for those who wish to hear them, and instead encourage their cabin crew to focus on what they should be doing best: providing customer service.
Thanks for your time.
Respectfully,
John S. Perkins
A recent conversation I had with the folks at MBNA, the nation’s largest credit card issuer:
She: How may I help you today?
I: I’d like to cancel my MBNA MasterCard.
She: I’m sorry to hear that, sir. Did you have a reason?
I: Yes.
(…pause…)
She: Uh, may I ask what it is?
I: Certainly. In the last 6 election cycles, MBNA and its employees have been the number one campaign donors in the financial sector, always more than 70% to the GOP. Your company gives too much money to Republicans, and I don’t want to be a part of that.
(… l-o-n-g pause …)
I: Hello?
She: Uh, yes I’m still here.
I: There isn’t anything in the script for that, huh?
She: No, no there sure isn’t.
I: Great. Well why don’t you just take care of that cancellation and mail me a confirmation, okay?
She: I’ll do that, sir. Thanks for calling MBNA.
To bypass the menu tree and contact MBNA cancellation directly, dial (800) 336-2974.
