From Craig

Up for discussion?

August 10, 2005 - Computers

Found this link on slashdot today: Unhappiness drives open source adoption (http://www.cbronline.com/article_news.asp?guid=2BF1A6B8-C974-42DD-8903-758193AE36BF)

Basically, more and more companies are leaving the likes of Microsoft and Windows because they are unhappy with the terms they have set out. With Linux, users can gain access to the kernel source code and, therefore, modify the kernel in any way they require. This might include performing certain optimizations which makes Linux run far better for a specific task. This is effectively impossible with Windows. Although Microsoft has allowed some extremely limited access to its source code, gaining this access requires accepting even more stringent terms than for just using the software.

More and more companies are showing interest in Linux. When I was Technical Director of Fifth Era Knowledge Corporation, I used Linux exclusively for servers (which the exception of a single Windows file server). Everything Linux ran smoothly. After I left the company, they switched many systems to Windows and very little of it ever worked properly. From a business perspective, Linux is by far the better choice. As the article points out, more and more people are taking notice:

August 6, 2005 - Music

I don't listen to much radio anymore. The only time I'm likely to have the radio on is when I'm driving. And since I try to drive as little as possible, that doesn't leave much for listening to the radio.

Having said that, there have been 2 songs I've been hearing a lot of lately. (Not to the point of being overplayed, mind you). I really like the two songs but I didn't really pay too much attention to who was singing them.

Then, during Live 8, I got to see who sings them. The songs were White Flag and Thank You and the singer was Dido. I decided that I had to get the album which contained these two songs. Much to my surprise, the songs are from 2 different albums, one of which was published in 1999. I was shocked to learn that Thank You was 6 years old and I had not heard it until just recently.

The albums are No Angel (1999) and Life for Rent (2003).

I cannot believe how much I love both of these albums! The music is well written and produced and the lyrics are excellent. Dido seems to really enjoy deeply emotional themes (usually sad). Her writing is very "matter of fact" so she doesn't come across as trying to beat you to death with what she has to say. Her style also helps her to avoid appearing self-indulgent.

I can't say enough good things about these albums. I think Life for Rent is a better album and that bodes well for anyone who is a fan of Dido. An artist's second album is often not as good as his/her first album. This is usually because the first album has the best of 5-10 years of writing where the second album is usually produced quickly (within 1 year) because of demand generated from the first album. Given that there was 4 years between No Angel and Life for Rent, it doesn't appear as though Dido just wants to get stuff out there. It seems that she is willing to take the time to make the music the best that it can be. As a music fan who has felt let down by the last 15 years of music, this is a very good sign indeed!

July 26, 2005 - Politics

Well... here's one to take the cake. The original story: World dropped guard after 9/11 - Blair (http://today.reuters.com/News/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-07-26T121121Z_01_L2653693_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-SECURITY-BRITAIN-DC.XML) (Fair Use Copy)

And if that means killing innocent Brazillians in the subway, then so be it!

I cannot believe Blair's cavalier attitude towards the person shot by police on the subway. Basically, it's pretty clear that police over reacted and ended up killing an innocent man. Blair's response was that if he were a terrorist and they didn't take that action, they could be condemned for not doing anything. The problem with this response is that it is a total fantasy. He Wasn't a terrorist so any form of justification built on if he was is totally meaningless.

His response tells me that he fears major political repercussions and he is grasping at straws not to look like the bad guy. News flash, Tony. It's too late!

Hmmm... and an attack on the World Trade Centre by Saudi Nationals offered no justification for the attack of the soverign nation Iraq. What's your point? It seems to me that the inevitablity of this argument is that what he does is right and what they do is wrong. Some might argue that I am creating a strawman here, but I don't think I am. When it gets right down to it, the London subway bombings have no justification and the attack on Iraq has no justification. Blair is not distinguishing himself from his enemy in this regard.

July 17, 2005 - Books

Well, I went to the bookstore at about 1:00pm yesterday and picked up the latest in the Harry Potter series and by 8:00pm tonight, I had finished reading the book. It's 607 pages (shorter than the last installment by about 160 pages). Compared to the last book, this one is a lot better, but it's not as good as book 4. So, my rankings of the books would be as follows:

So, I would put the latest in the series in line with the 3rd book. Not bad to be tied for second.

There are some interesting statements made which I can only say are allegorical. Some of the reactions taken to the return of Voldemort is an obvious statement about terrorism in our current world. There are some really good points made about that this book (I'm trying not to add spoilers to this log!)

My biggest criticism of the book is that the whole thing was like an exposition for the next book. We learned a lot, but throughout the whole book, very little actually happened. There are several instances where the pensieve is used and it's like we're watching a movie play out. This provides valuable information, but nothing really happens to the main characters

All in all, I would recommend that people read the book. I think that it does a very good set up of what looks like it's going to be a very interesting and exciting final book in the series!

July 16, 2005 - Movies

So, last night I went out and picked up some videos. I got Super-Size me, The Mummy, Pirates of the Caribbean and another one called Easy.

The Mummy

I started watching The Mummy at about 12:30 am so I only got through about half of it before I had to turn in. I watched the remaining parts of it tonight. The first 15 minutes or so sets up the background for the whole movie. I thought the movie was supposed to be some kind of horror flick, so I was shocked at just how wrong everything was. Historically speaking, they didn't get a single thing about ancient Egypt right. My spirits were low thinking that the rest of the movie is just going to be stupid.

I was pleasantly surprized to say I enjoyed the rest of the movie. The reason being is I eventually figured out (with the help of the main character) that the movie was supposed to be camp... the whole thing was camp. It is so totally camp that I enjoyed it.

What can I say? Terribly amusing.

Super-Size me

I watched this movie first. I had heard quite a bit about it and had been looking forward to it. I had high expectations for this movie and all I can say is that they were more than met. The movie was really well done. It flowed well and was an interesting documentary on fast food in NA. One part I found particularly interesting was the constant repetition of the teaching children good eating habits sentiments. People kept saying that, yet their actions did nothing of the sort. Whether they don't realize it or not, I don't know.

Definitely a movie worth watching!

July 5, 2005 - Computers

It now takes only 12 minutes for a PC which has been connected to the internet to become infected, according to Real Tech News (http://www.realtechnews.com/posts/1511)(Fair Use Copy).

Why on earth anyone would use Windows anymore is beyond me. Similarly, I'm amazed that anyone would believe anything Microsoft had to say about their efforts to securing windows. They sure put a lot of marketting behind it, but the fact is, their security is getting worse. I can't see that changing without a complete rewrite of windows (and that ain't going to happen)

July 4, 2005 - Education

Here's an interesting one from the CBC (http://www.cbc.ca/cp/business/050630/b0630102.html) ( Fair use copy).

Toyota recently announced that they will be building a new assembly plant in Ontario dispite millions in subsidies offered from American states. Basically, the reason they turned down the American offers is because it costs too much to train people in parts of the US:

This is not surprising to me. One of the things I have noticed is that many Americans are very intimidated by education. I am constantly hearing how someone "became a millionaire and they didn't need a degree". I keep hearing how degrees are useless. However, my experiences are completely different and I find it a shame that I have met so many people who have drawn conclusions either based on fear or misinformation.

June 28, 2005 - Politics/Economics

Just when you thought the deficit in the US couldn't get any larger, it has increased to (new) record highs.

BIGGER than expected? In one quarter, the deficit for the US is approx 45% of Canada's Total accumulated deficit (in adjusted dollars). So, in three months, the US has accumulated a deficit equal to the 45% of Canada's accumulated deficit from the last 50 years. Just like the .com bubble, one has to question just how long this will last.

Not long by my reckoning!

BBC Link (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4104466.stm)

June 25, 2005: Science

This is something I wanted to post about for some time. I originally came across this on Slashdot (http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/12/07/2056214&tid=14) ( Fair use copy). This article pointed to a story (http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/306/5702/1686)( Fair use copy) which is my focus.

I have talked several times with persons about global warming, and their immediate response is always the same: "Event scientists can't agree that it's even happening let alone do they agree that we are having an impact." This is the line that has been blared loud and clear through the media for the last several years.

The paper I've linked above provides an analysis of the body of 928 peer-reviewed and published papers on the matter of global warming between 1993 and 2003. The results are clearly stated:

Out of the 928 papers examined:

So, the idea that scientists disagree is clearly false:

The fact is, there is no disagreement in the scientific community regarding global warming.

June 25, 2005 : Politics

The stupidity of the official opposition in Canada is starting to border on the fantastic. I just have to wonder where the hell Steven Harper's head is:

Hmmm... nobody voted for a Conservative-Block coalition, but that's what we got for the budget vote. Have you forgotten that already? It was only a few weeks ago. You are the only ones opposing the government on the budget because it is a very good budget. The NDP got the budget amended because they worked with the government. Perhaps your party should start working with the government instead of just sitting on the sidelines pouting about the fact that you aren't in government.

You've had months to speak about it. And you have been speaking about it. Unfortunately, what you've been saying has been full of rhetoric and devoid of anything meaningful or thoughtful. Again, if you started to act like your purpose for being the opposition is to work with the government so that it is governing according to the wishes of Canadians instead solely trying to get into power at all costs, you might have more support from the citizens of this country.

Considering that the 3 parties you mention make up the majority of the House of Commons, I can't see how this is undemocratic. Did they violate parliamentary procedure? No. Perhaps they, like the rest of us, are getting tired of your "oppose everything the government does at all costs" attitude. It is clear to me that the Conservative party of Canada does not play well with others.

And your actions have made it quite clear to me that your party is equal to or worse that the Liberals in this respect. "Mr Kettle, Mr. Pot on line 2".

Quotes from Harper criticizes the Liberal government for teaming up with Bloc (http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=037cf21d-eaf8-4bd5-952c-482bda93fcd6) Fair use copy

June 24, 2005: Politics

Well, I guess I'll start this off with an interesting one.

Italian Judge Orders Arrest of 13 CIA Operatives for Kidnapping (http://http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/24/international/europe/24cnd-milan.html?hp&ex=1119672000&en=f2537cb9c32da240&ei=5094&partner=homepage) Fair use copy

This brings up a lot of interesting questions:

• Is the use of torture justified when dealing with suspected terrorists?
• If it is, why is the CIA taking these people to countries like Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan, etc, instead of the US?
• Given what we've seen in the Downing Street Memo (http://www.downingstreetmemo.com/memo.html)( Fair use copy), the intelligence surrounding the Iraq invasion was tailored to support invading Iraq. Can we trust the evidence that these people are indeed terrorists?
• What about the sovereignty of Italy (in this case specifically)

At this point, the article doesn't seem to give enough information for me to make what I consider to be an informed decision about this topic. I don't believe in torture as an effective or legal mechanism for obtaining information (neither does the Geneva Convention). In the western world, we are so very proud of our systems. Why is it that some feel it is justified to just forget the process under certain circumstances?

I think when it comes to the law, all must be subject. If there are those who are not subject, then the laws cease to have meaning.