05/28/05

• The classic definition of chutzpah:
  • A man kills his parents and then pleads for clemency because he's an orphan. Or, kinda like Bush saying Iraq had weapons of mass destruction so the US could invade them, then changing the rationale when WMD's weren't found.

• The recent article on Very Light Jets made me think (and goodness knows how difficult THAT is!) about the future of flight in America.
  • Moller Sky Car
    • If these things ever catch on ( http://www.moller.com/skycar/ ), it might revolutionize flight! Imagine having one in your garage and flying to another city as easily (or easier than) you drive to the grocery store or cinema now!
  • Very Light Jets
    • These small (4-8 passenger http://www.ainonline.com/issues/04_05/04_05_vlj_62.html ) jets hope to make charter jet flight available to the 'masses'. The first ones should emerge in the latter part of '05 or the beginning of '06. Imagine (AGAIN!) flying from your nearest airport to the airport nearest your destination for not much more than a First Class Ticket (naturally the HIGHEST priced ticket!). You may have to share space with other people, but it will be just a couple rather than over a hundred with the currnt system. The flight will be more attuned to your travel plans than the big jets now.
  • The Future
    • NASA and the major airlines are working on a new system whereby once you leave the vicinity of your departure airport, you won't be restricted to the current lanes that have been in use since the early days of flight. With current (and future) avionics platforms (the radar, etc. in the plane) you would basically plot your own course from airport to airport. Imagine AGAIN/STILL/YET!!!) the possibilities!

03/16/05

• In addition to all the other stuff I've been immersed in lately, my 'blog' has been sitting idly by waiting for me to have an original thought. Since I STILL haven't had any, you get my version! The 'Incredible Blogs' link that I put in has already gotten me hooked! Ken Leebow (the author of that web site) had a post about the Lewis and Clark expedition. His post consisted of 14 sections, involving everything from the journals to a Disney animation. Quite a post! All for now! Gotta go back and read HIS post!

• Well, since you asked for it (in MY dreams, anyway!), here's my dream computer system:
  • Partition Magic Multi Boot System:
    • Linux for security
    • Apple, because my best friend has it!
    • Windows XP Professional, because my favorite HTML Editor is Windows-based and XP Pro because it'll stand a better chance of stopping viruses, hackers, etc.
  • Centrino processor for wireless computing!
  • 2 Gb RAM So I won't hafta wait for anything to load!
  • Notebook computer with 17" WXGA Wide-Screen (for HTML Editing!)
  • Echo Indigo PC Card for GREAT sound!
  • Software:
    • MyDVD for rewritable DVDs!
    • ZoneAlarm Pro for repelling hackers!
    • PGP for encrypting stuff!
    • PersonalBrain for (trying!) to think!
• I'll prolly think of more stuff later but that should bore ya for now!

• Folks, when you're told that one of the main things that spyware does is to change your default home page and not allow you to change it back AND Microsoft's new anti-spyware program does that very thing, AND they had to pay a Dutch company big bucks because they said THAT company was spreading spyware, then just who is the company spreading spyware! My vote goes to Microsoft as the one spreading malware!!
• They ALSO say that they can't give away the anti-spyware program because that would be considered a monopolistic practice, but they DID give away Internet Explorer for free and said it WASN'T being monopolistic!!
• Just a thought: For a few years, the Justice Department was pressing a lawsuit accusing Microsoft of anti-competitive practices. Then Bush took office, and no more lawsuit! How much money do you suppose Microsoft paid to Bush and the Republicans prior to the 2000 election? How much above the table and how much UNDER the table???
• According to Microsoft, IE 7.0 Beta will be out in July or August. Considering their penchant for late delivery AND the fact that IE all of a sudden CAN be separated from Windows, despite their claim to the contrary, AND the fact that Firefox has over 25 million downloads in the last few months, doesn't it seem that Microsoft is on the verge of a MAJOR shot-in-the-foot when they have to delay the beta? AND when they have to fix even MORE holes in 7.0 , Firefox might just appear to be the browser of choice that Microsoft said THEY were supposed to be!!!
• Those of you who use alternate operating systems like Apple are probably wondering what all of this fuss about spyware and holes in the OS and browser are all about. Safari, the Apple browser, has so few (and quickly fixed) holes and Apple itself is the same thing, that you have good reason to be smug about Microsoft's many problems. Microsoft is no longer updating Explorer for the Mac. Often called Exploder for all its crashes and freezes, it is however, the browser that all sites are designed for. If I ever had a few thousand dollars with nothing pressing to spend it on, I would get a Mac. Unfortunately (there's THAT word again1), with very limited, read NO, funds, I guess I'm stuck with a Wintel (Windows/Intel) machine.

• Bush 'talks' a good game. If you just heard him speak and didn't know how he acted, then he almost sounded like a person just like you and me. Unfortunately, the old saying goes "Actions speak louder than words"
• Case in point: After Enron and all the corporate scandals, Bush 'said' that companies need to be held accountable. The problem is that his actions belied his words. He CUT funding for the SEC, the agency responsible for enforcement of the laws.
• Social Security that won't be secure. The more Bush convinces gullible people to take their money out of Social Security and into private accounts, the worse off everyone will be. The only winners will be the Wall Street people who get their cut no matter how the stocks do. And maybe that was what he wanted all along. That's in keeping with every other action he's taken.
• Clean Skies Act that lets big business pollute more with little or no accountability.

• Well, this is the first of innumerable postings to this page....

• Has anyone done any work with XML? In 2001, I started working with it, but lost my Net connection, so that project was still-born. Now, there are so many acronyms and so much complexity connected with it that I fear starting again.
  What occasioned all this was a new browser that uses XML and XFORMS (the XML equivalent of HTML forms). The web page 'said' that it would be easy; just download and extract the program, load one of the files and voila!, an example of XFORMS!
  Problem #1: Nothing, just a blank screen. Their solution: download a plug-in.
  Problem #2: Already had the plug-in, but downloaded and installed it again. STILL NOTHING!

  Solution #1: Lon is an idiot!
  No solution #2 presents itself readily to mind.
  Another in a LONG series of programs what were SUPPOSED to be easy to set up and would make my life so much easier. Either they were difficult or impossible to set up, or they did nothing to improve my life. RATS!!!

• Has anyone heard of FOM pillows? Suposedly microfibers of foam that make for a very comfortable pillow. Read about it in one of the many email newsletters I subscribe to. The lady was supposed to go in to jury duty and brought along her FOM pillow for its comfort! My SECOND million will include several of these puppies!!

• I would like to propose an entirely new way of loading programs on a computer. Rather than the DOS way of having programs have a pointer to a central autoexec.bat file or the subsequent Microsoft way of having every program load pieces in several different places (and then not usually deleting all of those pieces!), I would like each new program have a list of all the other programs which depend on it, or vice-versa, put a pointer in ITS FOLDER to the folders of those programs; like a small database in the program files that would say "if you need this program, here is its folder".
  • If flash.exe, c:\program files\macromedia\flash.exe
  • If Adobe Reader, c:\program files\adobe\reader\acrord32.exe
• Since programs look for old versions, etc. anyway, why not also have an index of all programs and their folders on the system, something like what the desktop search programs have.
  Sounds kinda simple, which means I MUST be missing something important!!!

• Microsoft, most everyones' favorite whipping post, deserves the honor. However much they try to tell people that they are a security-conscious company, when they're saying that whatever program is better, even one percentage point 'improvement' would be 'better' but is that what the customers really need to hear? Customers want facts, not promises. Microsoft persists in giving promises instead of facts. End of rant #1!
• Microsoft said that the long-awaited upgrade to its SQL Server database, Enterprise Edition of SQL Server 2005, formerly known by its Yukon code name, will come with new features as well as a price hike of as much as 25 percent when it ships later this year.
  • First of all, they rarely ship items on time, and
  • Second, that 25 percent price hike is a MAJOR bummer for anyone wanting to upgrade!

• AMD plans to ship a dual-core version of its 64-bit Athlon-64 microprocessor for mobile and desktop PC's during the second half of this year. THEY generally DO ship things on time!

• Republican's President Bush is my pick for the 1984 Ministry of Truth award for his constant say-one-thing/mean-another stance.
  • Who else can support a 'Clean Air' act that lets polluters dump more of their toxic garbage in our once-pristine waters?
  • Say that a new tax break primarily for his rich friends is 'for the people'?
  • Together with his Republican majority, constantly pass new laws that increase the divide between the rich and poor in America.
  • Pass a 'Patriots Act' that is anything BUT patriotic; resulting in so many states and cities distancing themselves from it.

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