ITtoolbox: New blog post by ernie.cordell

ITtoolbox Blog Alert March 17, 2007  New post by ernie.cordell Go to Blog   The Ghost Walks If you're feeling a sense of deja vu at the reading of this post, it's because I'm doing a thorough accounting of my promises, implicit and explicit, from my first post. At that time I wrote: One one...  More... ernie.cordell (Software Developer)     New comments on ernie.cordell's blog:     Comment to Front Matter/Grey Matter  from ernie.cordell    Today's Most Discussed Entry    Reading email using MAPI in VB.NET During my amateur days, I was very much into the art of playing around with networks, email protocols and little firewall/cookie stuff. A personal interest got me to try and program a mail client windows...  More... George P. Alexander Jr. (Software Engineer)    Recent Posts from other Bloggers Use fax machines with discretion by Tom Olzak (Director, Information Security) It's poison, I tell you. Poison! by Udi Dahan (Chief Architect) IBM release Information Server 8.0.1 for Unix AIX and Linux by Vincent McBurney (Consultant, Solution Architect) Defining IT's Role In Your Company by alexexmachina (Technical Specialist) Cisco IPS confirmed to have Diverse Vulnerabilities by Craig Borysowich (Chief Technology Tactician)    Related White Papers   Speech Technology Company-Wide   Achieving Real-Time Supply Chain Integration   Manage ITtoolbox Subscriptions  |   Leave Alert  |   Advertising Information Post an IT Job  |   Post your Resume  |   Additional Questions     Knowledge Bases: Baan - Business Intelligence - C Languages - CIO - CRM Data Warehouse - Database - EAI - Emerging Technologies - ERP - Hardware - Java Knowledge Management - Linux - Networking - Oracle - PeopleSoft - Project Management - SAP SCM - Security - Siebel - Storage - UNIX - Visual Basic - Web Design - Windows - Wireless Also at ITtoolbox: Blogs - Events & Webcasts - Groups - Job Center - Wiki

Thanks, Roger,

Hey everybody, come on in, the water's fine!

Ernie
----- Forwarded message from RogerGuisinger via pm-theghost-blog
<pm-theghost-blog@Groups.ITtoolbox.com> -----
Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2007 17:22:29 -0500
From: RogerGuisinger via pm-theghost-blog
<pm-theghost-blog@Groups.ITtoolbox.com>
Reply-To: pm-theghost-blog@Groups.ITtoolbox.com
Subject: [pm-theghost-blog] BlogComment:Front Matter/Grey Matter
To: "ernie.cordell" <ernie.cordell@highstream.net>

Hey Ernie, let me add my congrats on your blog.<br><br>Thanks for introducing me
to the IT Toolbox community, and actually getting me to sign up. The picture
above looks exactly like me, but I may post a lighter one later. <br><br>I
think the Lampoon dog was a Shetland Shepherd. I had one as a kid in
Michigan.<br><br>To your early-referenced question, I think the toughest part
of a SW project for a developer is a lot like the toughest part for a painting
project for a painter, or any other professional. The up front understanding of
the requirements and the preparation should be the toughest part. Otherwise each
successive phase gets harder and harder until you're having to scrape off the
paint (code? data? deliverables? foreign policy?) to fix the defects before you
can exit. But if you make the requirements and planning phase the toughest, the
rest (in my experience) should be easier. It's fun to end on target and exceed
expectations. And fun is the reason we became software engineers, right?
<br><br>Why am I telling you this? I'm sure I learned it from you 30 years ago!
<br><br>Keep those fingers flying and I'll try to keep up.<br>

!***!<br><a
href="http://blogs.ittoolbox.com//pm/theghost/archives/front-mattergrey-matter-15023">Click
here</a> to go to this entry !***!

----- End forwarded message -----

--
Ernie Cordell, Production Specialist
Email: ernie.cordell@highstream.net
Web: http://www.geocities.com/ecordell
Aux1: ecordell@yahoo.com
Aux2: ernie_cordell@hotmail.com

Fwd: [scott_meyers] Public Talks Scheduled for May and September

Attention Effective C++ fans --
----- Forwarded message from Scott Meyers <smeyers@aristeia.com> -----
Date: 16 Mar 2007 15:53:01 -0700, Fri, 16 Mar 2007 10:30:49 -0700
From: Scott Meyers <smeyers@aristeia.com>
Reply-To: scott_meyers-owner@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [scott_meyers] Public Talks Scheduled for May and September
To: scott_meyers@yahoogroups.com

In May, I'll be speaking at the first Boost conference, to be held in Aspen.
I'll be giving a full-day tutorial on TR1 and some Boost libraries. The
conference site is http://www.boostcon.com/home .

In September, I'll be making my annual trip to Germany to speak on a variety of
C++ and software development topics. I'm especially excited about my seminar
on applying C++ in embedded systems, because this year it's two days long
instead of one.

You'll find details on these talks at the usual place:

http://www.aristeia.com/seminars_frames.html

I hope to see you at one of these events.

Scott

----- End forwarded message -----

--
Ernie Cordell, Production Specialist
Email: ernie.cordell@highstream.net
Web: http://www.geocities.com/ecordell
Aux1: ecordell@yahoo.com
Aux2: ernie_cordell@hotmail.com

A clean, lean presentation of a few old error-handling techniques in C and the problems in using them, bringing the new freshness of a tidy organization of thoughts that the subject doesn't have in a lot of programming texts.



read more | digg story

I may not agree with the entirety of Payton's post, but it is time that the world dugg his arguments. From the GNU Manifesto/FSF "The desire to be rewarded for one's creativity does not justify depriving the world in general . . ." I'll start blogging soon on ITToolbox: Maybe Payton and I can elevate this argument into something more than just the flame war into which it usually degenerates. I'll be "The Ghost In The Machine" at http://blogs.ittoolbox.com/pm/theghost



read more | digg story

I didn't know those homes were there . . .

I'm glad the following quote came with attribution, although there is probably more attribution due to the researcher who accidentally dug it up for me.

I somehow came up with a string of quotations on sentimentality after having sent an email to my friend Roger (You may as well have this introduction, I find it hard to speak of any serious subject without including him, seeing as we have discussed everything that exists and some things whose existence simply can't be proven).

In the message that I sent Roger, I was replying to his answer on a sentimentality quote from Oscar Wilde; Oscar, tending to be a little hard-shelled at times, didn't appeal to Roger. So in order to show Roger the difference between rank sentimentality and true sentiment, I gathered a number of quotations, of which this was one. OK, spotlight off Roger and Oscar, they are shrinking from the attention.

What follows comments on something that I find particularly revolting, which may explain my reluctance to involve myself in many wonderful real-estate investments.

My feeling when I hear a realtor speak of "finding a home" for me, is parallel to that of Hamlet while thinking of the decaying jester Horatio who doted on him in his youth -- "My gorge rises at't."

While there may be some influence from another euphemism referring to what could happen to me if I express some of my views publically as I do here, I don't suppose I am as worried about someone "sending me to a home" after the finding of it as I am about people who thing certain things can be acquired without the "sweat equity" of emotional investment.

There is the most revolting Realty Agency promotion that shows on my local (Washington, DC) television stations frequently, wherein some fellow says "I didn't even know those homes were there." Unless he is talking about institutions to remove those who are unappreciated from our sight, I doubt that those homes were there. In that spirit, I would add to the list below, the expression "halfway homes" instead of "halfway houses" used to reintroduce some of the socially disadvantaged once again into what is perceived to be the society of "mainstream culture."

. . . Those whose goal it is to sell domestic dwellings hope to persuade their patsies that a house and a home are identical, and thus advertise "a lovely quarter-of-a-million-dollar home." But since a housewrecker differs significantly from a homewrecker, the inference is clear that house and home mean different things, although the new gentility and sentimentality, issuing in the new euphemism, labor constantly to efface the difference. The Philadelphia Inquirer has spoken recently of boarding homes, and it will probably not be long before we hear of whorehomes, homes of prostitution, and bawdy homes. ATTRIBUTION: Paul Fussell (b. 1924), U.S. historian, critic, educator. "Travel, Tourism, Etc.," Thank God for the Atom Bomb and Other Essays, Ballantine (1989).

----------------------------------
Ernest Clayton Cordell, Jr.
E-mail: ernie.cordell@highstream.net
Yahoo/Geocities Site: http://www.geocities.com/ecordell
Web page redirect at: http://come.to/ernie

New Daylight Savings Time

At 3/9/07 7:07:08 AM the text below was copied from the web document "Information about Daylight Saving Time (DST) and NIST Time Services" at

http://tf.nist.gov/timefreq/general/dst.htm

The rules for DST have changed in 2007 for the first time in more than 20 years. The new changes were enacted by the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which extended the length of DST in the interest of reducing energy consumption. The new rules increase the length of DST by about one month. DST will now be in effect for 238 days, or about 65% of the year, although Congress retained the right to revert to the prior law should the change prove unpopular or if energy savings are not significant. Beginning in 2007, Daylight Saving Time in the United States
begins at 2:00 a.m. on the second Sunday of March and
ends at 2:00 a.m. on the first Sunday of November

In 2007 DST will begin on March 11th. Set your clocks ahead one hour on Sunday, March 11, 2007.

In 2007 DST will end on November 4th. Set your clocks back one hour on Sunday, November 4, 2007.

[End of Quoted Text]

It seems to me that this long and exasperating experience has proven that human beings will adapt to any system with which they are presented, becoming more consistent with the passage of time under a single set of rules. Workplace studies have shown [I don't recall any references at the moment] that any [environmental] change (i.e. light intensity, music, silence, whale song, color scheme, desert theme, garden of eden, temperature and pressure) will produce a temporary upswing in productivity. Temporary is the keyword here, since the results always seemed to project that any adjustment to conditions will have a rather ephemeral effect.

I hear a lot of talk about what will happen to all the computers: I don't think they'll really mind; I guess that means they've taken over the Earth, finally, because now we're worried about accomodating them.
----------------------------------
Ernest Clayton Cordell, Jr.
E-mail: ernie.cordell@highstream.net
Yahoo/Geocities Site: http://www.geocities.com/ecordell
Web page redirect at: http://come.to/ernie

They both worked!

I really should have edited the reply to Phlip J. Beyer, but the whole history is there in case you're interested.

I added my other email address to the list of bloggers, although it worked anyway "in the beforetime" when digg blogging was broken and I was posting pretty much exclusively by email.

Now the digg blog and both email blogs worked last time.

If this works, I can even tell you about it.
----------------------------------
Ernest Clayton Cordell, Jr.
E-mail: ernie.cordell@highstream.net
Yahoo/Geocities Site: http://www.geocities.com/ecordell
Web page redirect at: http://come.to/ernie

Re: Is there a fix to get Digg "Blog This" to work with new Blogger?

Unqualified Yippee! I just hope my "Post by email" is intact -- the last one
didn't seem to go through. Maybe I have to do something to fix
authentication that was affected.
--- Philip J Beyer <noreply@googlegroups.com> wrote:

>
>
>
> confirmed...
>
> here's the Digg story where Kevin Rose acknowledged the bug ( http://
> www.digg.com/programming/
> Digg_com_Error_Cant_accept_Googles_New_Blogger )
>
> here's my post about the new Digg system for Blog Settings ( http://
> allthingsphil.com/site/blog/2007/02/digg-fixed-support-for-new-
> blogger.html )
>
> here's a Digg story with details ( http://www.digg.com/tech_news/
> Thanks_Digg_Google_Blogger_Issue_Solved )
>
>
> On Feb 7, 10:22 am, benbabooey wrote:
> > as of this AM - fixed!!!!
> >
> > On Jan 26, 1:38 pm, ^Ernie^ wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> > > Has everyone given up yet?
> >
> > > There are a couple of other things that I'd like to point out for
> > > anyone who is listening:
> >
> > > (1) It is a well-known fact with clear evidence, present problems and a
> > > history of malfunction that this problem exists and has a specific and
> > > known nature to users and likely a known source and concrete reason for
> > > digg/blogger technical staff (Personally, I've been hoping that it is a
> > > transitional issue until blogger can drop the dual redirecting login,
> > > but lately it would appear that digg would rather have to deal with the
> > > duality and work with blogger on a solution).
> >
> > > (2) Why is it that I have one login to "all things Google," but
> > > whenever I move between services, I have to login all over again?
> > > Migrations and mergers can be difficult, but if you can't deal with the
> > > workload, pass on the acquisition or your stockholders will lose
> > > confidence, which translates to a lower-valued venture.
> >
> > > Thank you, Landus, for allowing me to use this reply to speak to the
> > > broader community.
> >
> > > Just another blogger blogger,
> > > Ernie
> >
> > > On Jan 19, 3:03 pm, lordkosc wrote:
> >
> > > > no fix yet..... i am getting the same error....... :(
> >
> > > > Landus wrote:
> > > > > Does anyone know if Digg has fixed this, or if another way to get
> Digg
> > > > > to work has been found?
> >
> > > > > -- Chris
> >
> > > > > ^Ernie^ wrote:
> > > > > > This was the first reply that I got, which is what inspired me to
> blog
> > > > > > via
> > > > > > email to myhttp://ecordell.blogspot.comblog. Somehow I got the
> blog
> > > > > > to
> > > > > > appear on my Google homepage, but I don't see a way to verify the
> > > > > > xml-rpc
> > > > > > link there so that I could try it manually.
> > > > > > I can find thehttp://ecordell.blogspot.com/atom.xmllink, and I
> tried
> > > > > > using
> > > > > > that one in the xml-rpc field for a manual setup, but that's when
> I got
> > > > > > the
> > > > > > error that I mention in the blog.
> >
> > > > > > Well, like other people, I have bigger fish to fry at the moment,
> > > > > > Ernie
> > > > > > --- benbabooey <[email address]> wrote:
> >
> > > > > > > nope.. i checked the other day, still not working. SO many
> sites have
> > > > > > > fixed this (flickr, etc) - i dont see why they cant just change
> it :-\
> >
> > > > > >
> ___________________________________________________________________________
> > > > > > Never miss an email again!
> > > > > > Yahoo! Toolbar alerts you the instant new Mail arrives.
> > > > > >http://tools.search.yahoo.com/toolbar/features/mail/--
> > > > > > Posted By Ernie to My Other Handsome Blog at 1/12/2007 08:53:00
> AM
> >
> > > > > > KiddWhiz wrote:
> > > > > > > still not working......anyone know how to setup the new Blogger
> > > > > > > manually in Digg? Even YouTube doesn't work.....it's the same
> company!- Hide quoted text -- Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -
> >
> > > - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -
> >
> > - Show quoted text -
>
>
> --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
> This message is part of the topic "Is there a fix to get Digg "Blog
> This" to work with new Blogger?" in the Google Group "Publishing Trouble"
> for which you requested email updates.
> To stop receiving email updates for this topic, please visit the topic
> at
> http://groups.google.com/group/blogger-help-publishing/t/903070ab4edb769e
> -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
>
>

____________________________________________________________________________________
Food fight? Enjoy some healthy debate
in the Yahoo! Answers Food & Drink Q&A.
http://answers.yahoo.com/dir/?link=list&sid=396545367

This probably won't become a blog entry.

---------------------How did I know?--------------------
This is notepad operating on mail00003
Write your message here and save the file:
------------------------------------------
I'm writing my message here and saving the file.

This is posted out of an application that I wrote using Bruce Wampler's "V" GUI generation system. It's a simple app that uses a default configuration file to find its customizable configuration file and determines the directories that it will use for its temporary files and then creates an email message file suitable for use with Outlook Express (or just about anything, in principle).

It queries for email addresses (which is also supposed to be configurable, but I haven't seen those modules in a long time) in a window with form fields, the last of which is the subject of the message.

Finally it offers an editor window (also configurable, I think) for which I have chosen MS Notepad because I wrote the program to queue up a bunch of quick little text notes to people while I was offline, so that when I used the dialup, I could just submit the series of files I had created without the disturbance of a network connection.

That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it . . .

The problems that started on Digg when I converted my Blogger account to a Google account are fixed. You can now blog straight from Digg using an "Old" Blogger or a "New" Blogger account. Seems like it was a bit of a tough fix. The path has to send you over to Google to authorize the connection before you can setup the account. Anyway, nice work.As referenced in the prior post, All Things Phil - Blog (new blogger entry) was most helpful in knowing what to expect upon returning to put in the new settings.



read more | digg story

Yipee! Finally Fixed! Digg.com wont accept my login information for my newly updated Blogger Beta account with the new Google Gmail account and there is no work around as of yet. Anyone else having problems like this? Please digg this if you think you could even have that problem so we can find a quick fix. Thanks See also:
Digg - Thanks, Digg. Google-Blogger Issue Solved!

All Things Phil - Blog

The original story is:

Digg - Digg.com Error - Cant accept Googles New Blogger

Digg or Blogger?

Well, maybe Digg.com doesn't like my comments: It would be nice if they'd let me know, though . . .

Now my "Email this" links don't seem to be working -- that was how I got around the problem where the "Blog this" link didn't work.

Oh, well, some people evidently just don't need the exposure: At this rate, world conquest ought to be relatively easy . . .

Ernie
----------------------------------
Ernest Clayton Cordell, Jr.
E-mail: ernie.cordell@highstream.net
Yahoo/Geocities Site: http://www.geocities.com/ecordell
Web page redirect at: http://come.to/ernie

Browse below for the long history of posts. Even a temporary
workaround would be nice.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: ^Ernie^
Date: Jan 26, 3:38 pm
Subject: Is there a fix to get Digg "Blog This" to work with new
Blogger?
To: Publishing Trouble

Has everyone given up yet?

There are a couple of other things that I'd like to point out for
anyone who is listening:

(1) It is a well-known fact with clear evidence, present problems and a history of malfunction that this problem exists and has a specific and known nature to users and likely a known source and concrete reason for digg/blogger technical staff (Personally, I've been hoping that it is a transitional issue until blogger can drop the dual redirecting login, but lately it would appear that digg would rather have to deal with the duality and work with blogger on a solution).

(2) Why is it that I have one login to "all things Google," but whenever I move between services, I have to login all over again? Migrations and mergers can be difficult, but if you can't deal with the workload, pass on the acquisition or your stockholders will lose confidence, which translates to a lower-valued venture.

Thank you, Landus, for allowing me to use this reply to speak to the
broader community.

Just another blogger blogger,
Ernie

On Jan 19, 3:03 pm, lordkosc wrote:

> no fix yet..... i am getting the same error....... :(

> Landus wrote:
> > Does anyone know if Digg has fixed this, or if another way to get Digg
> > to work has been found?

> > -- Chris

> > ^Ernie^ wrote:
> > > This was the first reply that I got, which is what inspired me to blog
> > > via
> > > email to myhttp://ecordell.blogspot.comblog. Somehow I got the blog
> > > to
> > > appear on my Google homepage, but I don't see a way to verify the
> > > xml-rpc
> > > link there so that I could try it manually.
> > > I can find thehttp://ecordell.blogspot.com/atom.xmllink, and I tried
> > > using
> > > that one in the xml-rpc field for a manual setup, but that's when I got
> > > the
> > > error that I mention in the blog.

> > > Well, like other people, I have bigger fish to fry at the moment,
> > > Ernie
> > > --- benbabooey <[email address]> wrote:

> > > > nope.. i checked the other day, still not working. SO many sites have
> > > > fixed this (flickr, etc) - i dont see why they cant just change it :-\

> > > ___________________________________________________________________________
> > > Never miss an email again!
> > > Yahoo! Toolbar alerts you the instant new Mail arrives.
> > >http://tools.search.yahoo.com/toolbar/features/mail/--
> > > Posted By Ernie to My Other Handsome Blog at 1/12/2007 08:53:00 AM

> > > KiddWhiz wrote:
> > > > still not working......anyone know how to setup the new Blogger
> > > > manually in Digg? Even YouTube doesn't work.....it's the same company!- Hide quoted text -- Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -- Show quoted text -

I got tired of going through all the menus just to manage my blog, so I tried this:

Google Blogger Login

But if you're already logged in, this may be better:

Google Blogger Home

YMMV . . .

Tired of the war? Microwave the enemy!

No serious health hazards? Tell JAMA and NEJM -- They'll want 1500 test cases. As of yet, no long-term exposure: Later, when they figure out they aren't on fire, there will be health risks -- like Cancer, for example.

Someone should invent the cell phone: Then we could detonate suicide bombers at our least favorite Metro stations.

Ray Gun Makes "Targets" Feel As Though They Were Afire

TMPI . . .

Until now, I had yet to delete any posts on any of the blogs that I've kept. Those "that I've kept" is perhaps the key phrase here: I have deleted entire accounts, but not individual posts. It's a long story, and not one I care to tell today, but that's a perfect introduction for what I do want to say.

I posted an advertisement that I received in email by sending it onto the blog. I've developed a special fondness for blogging by email -- it's like writing to a friend, except that it doesn't reply with all the reasons that it couldn't really read your message. Hopefully, if one cultivates an audience, this is the feeling one begins to develop for those readers -- a feeling of friendship and a genuine desire to inform them in such a way as might help them -- but with a knowledge that one needs not give up too much and that the general quality of the posts (like magazine articles, but hopefully less formal) determines the kind of feedback one does receive.

The advertisement was one that was generally helpful to me, but I became hesitant to leave it because it was based on my buying habits at the Amazon.com ecommerce site. I could have extracted the essential and helpful information, but part of the reason that I posted it in its entirety was to see how it would be treated in the conversion from email message to blog post. It was pretty good, I'll share that much with you. Maybe I might even blurb something on the specific (C++) books, later, but the fact that I was once interested in a pair of black pants in my size may not be too interesting to you. Also as they say, it was TMI.

I think we need a new acronym that is more specific to the complaint expressed by TMI -- I thought the post contained too much personal information or TMPI.

So I deleted it.

This is written in reaction to the links Digg.com: The Evolution of a Web Developer/Designer, The Evolution of a Web Developer/Designer, 10 CSS Tips from a Professional CSS Front-End Architect and The Evolution of a Programmer.

I was 14 years old 40 years and three days ago and IBM had a "markup language" called RUNOFF that looked remarkably like HTML. I was surprised that I got use out of one of its grandchildren "RNF" on the CDC 6000 "Cyber"-series 720, piping the 128-character ASCII out of its `scientific' 64-character set over its network operating system to an i8086 IBM PC as late as 1982.

I enjoyed the articles: The dugg one was funny and the one that inspired it was informative within the context of time, place and environment. We've been struggling with this portability problem since we tried to figure out whether to put ioports in high or low core, which pins on a plug should be grounded and how to synchronize our clocks. Completely portable solutions ain't gonna happen: As soon as two people agree, a third will rewrite the code and a fourth will reconfigure the hardware. Portability is one of those lofty goals to which we aspire but at which we should never really expect to arrive. I think it was in the 60s that the ACM published an article on whether we should hold machine architecture constant so that all languages could aim at producing code for the same target or rather have different kinds of machines that use standardized languages. I think we finally decided on varying everything and learning to deal with it.

There are so many aspects to this issue that I'm all over the road on it. I think "Hello World!" should be rewritten because as it stands, it's an insult to the student. If you can't get assimilate more than "shift a character string into the standard output stream" in your first C++ lesson, then maybe you shouldn't be studying programming. When I tutored/monitored/consulted in school, the program that I saw entirely too much was:

10 FOR I=1 TO 100

20 PRINT "I LOVE YOU!"

30 NEXT I

40 END


I think that nonsense was something that we started in my generation to alleviate "computer fear" -- a disease that seems to have been eradicated entirely. You have to remember that, in those days, Joe Public hadn't seen any real computers, only Hollywood mockups that inevitably encountered a logic error and burst into flames. You put that together with the fact that any computer that would run a program that your average Joe could actually write had an owner who stood over his/seldom-her million-dollar machine with a shotgun, and nerd armies guarded the doors day and night intimidating everyone with technospeak, and it translates to people fleeing in fear at the mere mention of a computer.

I may seem ancient to most readers, but I was the second computer generation, a working-class servant to the privileged grant-winners, and it fell upon us to help the third computer generation recover from the terrorism of million-dollar computer owners and the propaganda of mass-media sheep who feared that smart machines would soon enslave the human race and use them for batteries (cf. Matrix).

Predicting the future is a tricky business. Scripting may indeed replace the lion's share of commercial coding, but the winning language won't ressemble the gobbledygook that you have to write in order to get these primitive machines and amateur software (aka browsers) to behave. In order to use the expanded capabilities of our current processor-hardware complexes, we'll first have to cut the fluff and toys out of the operating systems and purge web-content of superflous gadgetry. Then you'll have enough processing power and memory left to parse a comprehensive scripting language that will still run in your lifetime.

I have a geeky side that still says, "Nifty!" when I see a cute bit of code or script, but my long-term perspective tells me that when you recount your software victories to your children, they'll look at you with a blank stare and ask, "Why in the name of Gates-Torvald would you want to do _that_?"

In the interim, we do have to keep the customer satisfied because it pays the bills until we write that perfect scripting language, but hopefully not in a scripting language, or any other form of interpreted code. If you are independently wealthy, you might still want to consider making yourself useful: While you're breathing the air, drinking the water and polluting the planet, you might want to provide some service so you'll be spared after the revolution.

Grammar does matter: As long as human communication is only at the most superficial layer of the lowest intellectual level, no designs will ever translate into implementations because no designer/developer will ever be able to relate a concept to any programmer/scripter, at least no concept that is complex enough to be interesting. I tire of engineers who come to me saying, "You go module he do include in that places important part when function him library no you no." Some of the foreign ones are almost as bad.

On my last major assignment near Washington, DC, the only literate engineer was from Iran and she ran rings around the rest of the staff. It was required of her because the rest of the staff understood little else. I tolerate improvised pidgin when I order a pizza, but if any designer/developer/programmer has expectations of earning more than minimum wage, it is not too much to ask for him/her to read and implement a design document or write one that can be understood without convening the security council to get a translation. Thick accents and variant pronunciations can be understood with effort, but ignorance and/or neglect of grammar renders a billion-dollar idea into cheap babbling.

Occupational titles are names that describe with what pursuits one is occupied: A job title could be a little more specific, but it should still tell what you do; it is the short form of the long position description, and as such, being shorter makes it necessarily more generic. Some people like to make up important-sounding titles and others like cute-sounding names, but I'm probably guilty of just telling you what my boss calls me; well, at least what he calls my job. To me, a "web architect" sounds like a cute name for a spider (the insect, not the crawler bot). "Web monkey" sounds funny, probably a derivation of "grease monkey" for automobile mechanic, but neither is really very descriptive, but probably quite clear to those in their respective positions. I once had a mechanic who was quite hairy, spent most of his time hunched over, lurching about and either swinging from here to there or perched awkwardly on the edge of bumpers and fenders, who was always covered in shiny black grease and flung handfuls of unidentifiable materials all about his garage. I can't say that I've seen web-browser routine writers behave in a similar way, but maybe they act differently when other-worlders are present.

I don't think it's actually possible to have a conclusion to this topic, maybe because I made the mistake of including all the mixed issues from the blogs, jokes and other types of link-sharing sites when a few of them were just meant to be simple ad-hominem attacks on people with differing positions on how to solve problems. Still, I've a right to my own fun, and it might help to look at the whole of the issue, with the disagreements piled in for good measure.

I have always been frustrated at how authors of programming language books always seem to write their texts as though nothing had ever been written previously on computer science. I think particularly of indices: They are often filled with playful comments while neglecting the bare requisites for digging up a reference to a logical query; I have no problem with playfulness, but it is annoying when the necessities are ignored.

We have plenty of generic terms such as "parameter passing mechanisms {value, value-result, reference [address]}, formal and actual parameters, dummy parameters, iteration, recursion, pre-test loops, post-test loops and branching," but when texts are written, they are filled with the least generic and hardly identifiable terms, yet the content is largely the same -- but it is usually written as though nobody could have conceived as such notions before reading that particular text. I realize some of the language can be daunting to beginners, but hey! They have to learn it too, eventually, or they'll never be able to ask for help or hold a meaningful
conversation about programming.

Parallel to this thought, when I first started learning C++ I noticed that all the beginners' books (and indeed many of the intermediate-level materials) would assert that it may be even better for you to learn C++ without having first learned C. I don't necessarily disagree with that view, but I found it annoying that after presenting this view, the C++ authors generally proceed to cover elements of the C language.

Part of the annoyance of this treatment is that one of the chief advantages of using C++ -- to take advantage of its object-oriented features -- is ignored by this approach, if not altogether compromised.

I thought it might be helpful to write many of the common beginner programs, like Hello, World! from an object-oriented perspective, and accompany them with an article on what the advantages are for learning C++ in this way rather than directing a stream to the console, which is probably actually an insult to the learning capabilities of the average reader who is hoping to learn C++ (especially one who actually stands a chance of learning anything useful or even gratifying).

Of course, I'll have to beat my own predisposition towards playing endlessly with every program I write, especially when I tend to overcomplicate them with every design iteration!

Let me give it a shot . . .

----------------------------------

Ernest Clayton Cordell, Jr.

E-mail: ernie.cordell@highstream.net

Yahoo/Geocities Site: http://www.geocities.com/ecordell

Web page redirect at: http://come.to/ernie

Visit: Book signing? ``Final Exam'' by Pauline W. Chen, recently reviewed by The New York Times.


1/17/2007
Politics & Prose Bookstore/5015 Connecticut Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20008
Phone: 202-364-1919
Visit scheduled for 7 pm

Fwd: Gimme a job!

This is a message that I posted to the dc.jobs Google Group. My next
step is probably screaming in the street, whereupon I expect to be
arrested. I hope I'm kidding . . .

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: ^Ernie^
Date: 12 Jan 2007 09:33:56 -0800
Subject: Gimme a job!
To:

C'mon, guys! I'm a seasoned software developer with more than 20 years
experience on every line-item in every phase of the research,
development and production lifecycle, as well as some amount of time in
the early years in other forms of automated data processing support. I
left defense consulting in the late 90s a little disillusioned with the
whole Federal consulting process and started some State-level
contracting without renewing any clearances. I could never find a real
need to know classified information, even when I analyzed data, because
I had the clients cook it down to character classes, allowing all tests
from pre-edit to acceptance while eliminating unnecessary access to
privileged information. These days I guess they just let some bozo
with a laptop walk with it. Without use, my clearances lapsed quickly,
anyway. After completion of the State-level work, I decided that I was
finally in a position to take a couple months off and finish that novel
that kept getting relegated to one desk drawer or another. I kept a
line out for opportunities, I just didn't pursue any aggressively for a
couple of months. As I sat comparing manuscript versions to be merged
into a whole, I heard Matt Lauer ask with incredulity, "Do we have any
pictures?" That was 9-11 of 2001: Everything I had every done in the
defense consulting community suddenly required an active clearance,
mostly Top Secret or Special Compartmentalized. Then I got a call from
a recruiter who asked why I didn't have a job. I told him I'd been
working on a novel. "You've been unemployed for two months?" He
asked, adding emphatically, "You're no longer employable!" Maybe that
was what spurred me on, maybe it was just software-development
withdrawal, but I started an intensely aggressive campaign that seemed
to be going nowhere. I even had a huge sign with an expensive graphic
made and set it up on a stand, first on Farragut Square, and then in
Lafayette Park. Every reaction I got was as though I were either a
lay-about or that they thought that I would forget everything I knew or
obsolesce in a couple of months after dedicating a lifetime to acquire
my skills and achieve my proficiencies.

I was always too absorbed by the work to have much of a social life:
My personal contacts dried out quickly and friends quickly lost
patience with my situation. At 54, I'm a little set in my ways and
sitting in front of a terminal hasn't done much to keep me in shape for
construction work. Most people hiring for low-level jobs say things
like, "By the time I get you trained, you'll find a job in your field."
Nobody wants to negotiate (and believe me I'm exceedingly reasonable
on rates right now).

I submit online applications constantly, but nobody takes me seriously
and I've nearly lost faith -- I've certainly lost faith in normal
internet solutions. While I'm not burning time online, I'm writing C++
programs that nobody cares to see. I'd love to do that for a living,
but right now I'd just settle for living.

This is a sin and a crime and a shame. Hire me!
Ernie

Re: Is there a fix to get Digg "Blog This" to work with new Blogger?

This was the first reply that I got, which is what inspired me to blog via
email to my http://ecordell.blogspot.com blog. Somehow I got the blog to
appear on my Google homepage, but I don't see a way to verify the xml-rpc
link there so that I could try it manually.

I can find the http://ecordell.blogspot.com/atom.xml link, and I tried using
that one in the xml-rpc field for a manual setup, but that's when I got the
error that I mention in the blog.

Well, like other people, I have bigger fish to fry at the moment,
Ernie
--- benbabooey <noreply@googlegroups.com> wrote:

>
>
>
> nope.. i checked the other day, still not working. SO many sites have
> fixed this (flickr, etc) - i dont see why they cant just change it :-\
>
>
> --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
> This message is part of the topic "Is there a fix to get Digg "Blog
> This" to work with new Blogger?" in the Google Group "Publishing Trouble"
> for which you requested email updates.
> To stop receiving email updates for this topic, please visit the topic
> at
> http://groups.google.com/group/blogger-help-publishing/t/903070ab4edb769e
> -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
>
>

____________________________________________________________________________________
Never miss an email again!
Yahoo! Toolbar alerts you the instant new Mail arrives.
http://tools.search.yahoo.com/toolbar/features/mail/

Fwd: Re: Is there a fix to get Digg "Blog This" to work with new Blogger?

Well, at least that worked -- The email option is a pretty friendly interface
to the blog anyway. There's an even more recent status from KiddWhiz below.
I tried the manual setup myself but I got an HTML Transit Error that said
something like the blog's response was not 220. I used all my normal "new"
Google Blogger settings, but with my blog's atom.xml URL for the xml-rpc
code. It didn't look right -- I'm sure I've had the page in front of me, but
I just haven't been able to dig it up at the blogger site.

In any case, what I concluded ages ago seems to be true: I'm blogging again.
I wonder how long _this_ will last. . . .
--- KiddWhiz <noreply@googlegroups.com> wrote:

> To: "Blogger Help Group - Publishing Trouble"
> <blogger-help-publishing@googlegroups.com>
> Subject: Re: Is there a fix to get Digg "Blog This" to work with new
> Blogger?
> Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2007 09:45:00 -0800
> From: KiddWhiz <noreply@googlegroups.com>
>
>
>
>
> still not working......anyone know how to setup the new Blogger
> manually in Digg? Even YouTube doesn't work.....it's the same company!
>
>
> --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
> This message is part of the topic "Is there a fix to get Digg "Blog
> This" to work with new Blogger?" in the Google Group "Publishing Trouble"
> for which you requested email updates.
> To stop receiving email updates for this topic, please visit the topic
> at
> http://groups.google.com/group/blogger-help-publishing/t/903070ab4edb769e
> -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
>
>

____________________________________________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo! Mail beta.
http://new.mail.yahoo.com

Digg Story: Another Loss For GPLv 3? Is the Free Software Concept being murdered?

Let's try it this way: I've been tearing my hair out trying to figure out what interface is going to work to post from digg.com to the new Google Blogger Blog. I hope more Internet companies achieve viability soon. I may have trouble pronouncing the problems I'm having, let alone solving them. Now I'll have to go back to my email to see whether I can find the message I got when I asked whether anyone had a new status on the changes necessary to make a post from digg.com to the Google Blogger Blog. That's enough for today.

digg user ecordell would like to share this story with you:

http://digg.com/software/Another_Loss_For_GPLv_3_Is_the_Free_Software_Concept_being_murdered

---
"Another Loss For GPLv 3? Is the Free Software Concept being murdered?"
MySQL adjusts its license to prevent automatic failover to GPL v3. Call it the 'uncertainty' clause. This doesn't even look legal to me: How is it possible to take a product that has enjoyed the contribution of innumerable collaborators and then sell their work as though it were your exclusive property? MySQL was originally a teaching exercise.
+4 people dugg this story

To verify that this email was sent by Digg user ecordell, visit:
http://digg.com/verifymail?key=851b42e7f6b2ce23001a71d9df3d4ff6

To opt out of ALL future emails from Digg, visit:
http://digg.com/optout?key=8b2568e65a33058057643aac20e1826e

Digg will NOT store your email address, even if you opt out!
Digg will store only an encrypted key, which even Digg can't decipher.

That didn't take long, did it?

Evidently, I'm blogging again . . .

As you can see by my previous post about a "change in GeoCities FTP policy," I quit giving attention to this blog when GeoCities was sold (or about to be sold) to "Yahoo!" Posting by FTP became a "premium service" (meaning that you would have to pay for it), and I was in no position to self-publish at that premium. I don't know whether that will ever change, but this provides a retrospective explanation to my last posting.

It is also an interesting post "in the light of" what I called "the seemingly upcoming war," now usually called simply "Iraq." Just as religious differences were exaggerated to divide the populace in India and Ireland, the new emphasis has shifted away from the Kurdish Homeland and onto differences between Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims. It would seem, though I'm by no means an expert on political manipulation or war, that an important component of engineering a victory at war is creating a perception that this victory will solve some social problem, such as eliminating radicalism or suppressing some unreasonable fanaticism. As a general rule, dampening the unjust influence of a small subset of society is generally beneficial, but it is often difficult to sort out whether the roles of separate parties who have no distinguishable "official" membership in that "fog of war" contribute to one fanaticism or another radical and unjust influence. The attempt to arrive at a "simple truth" may even be well-meaning, but negotiations fare well among many parties while wars are waged between two sides, one of which must be awarded an historical victory (as opposed to the declared victory that the world may choose to forget).

I doubt that my observations will solve any problems, but they may provide a perspective from which some individuals may arrive at solutions that they themselves need for their own purposes. Maybe next time I'll have something to say.

Returning Ernie

Don't know whether this will work since the change in GeoCities FTP policy, but I thought I'd give it a try because it is interesting in the light of the seemingly upcoming war.

I remarked at the published view because it does not fully comment on all the many betrayals of the Kurdish people by our government and its allies over time, such as the promise of giving them a homeland in 1918 after their support in World War I. According to accounts written at the time, what the Kurds lacked in technology and military training, they made up for in cunning and courage. Why should any other nation receive a homeland before them?

U.S. Said to Ready Kurd Areas in Iraq for Possible War The United States encouraged Kurdish uprisings in 1975 and 1991, then withheld support while local guerrillas were routed.

Quotes of the Day
"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."

That's an Oscar Wilde quote from "Quotes of the Day." I know I run a great risk by using it, but most people won't notice because they'll want to quote me on it.

Quotes of the Day

Police: Carjacker Threatened Man With AIDS

The regularity of this event these days is interesting, but the title of this story is what interested me here . . .

Police: Carjacker Threatened Man With AIDS

ABC DC Channel 7 WJLA-TV

No comment

I haven't written commentary on this issue because Blogger has been having problems, particularly with templates. I posted this article thinking that I would have commentary later, but I published it because I wanted to have something here to see that Blogger was working before I moved some of my pages to a more logical (and operable) location. Oops! Guess what: I couldn't change the links on the Blogger Template after moving the files. I'd change them manually, but then I wouldn't know when Blogger was fixed -- then I'll have to republish the archives (that repeat the erroneous information, anyway). Condit, FBI negotiate proposed interview

Click here for the story

Police frustrated with lack of help from Levy's neighbors

District police are frustrated . . .

by the silence of some of Chandra Levy's neighbors, who investigators believe could provide clues to the missing woman's whereabouts. A half-dozen visits to Levy's apartment building still leave police with "far too many people, more than a handful," who have yet to be interviewed about her disappearance, Executive Assistant Police Chief Terrance Gainer said.

Police frustrated with lack of help from Levy's neighbors

Two more biggies gone

In the latest wave of Internet madness, two very useful services have taken their leave for financial reasons. I hope there is some revenue for them somewhere, and some consolation where some reasons may be personal.

I was trying to think of an image for the great drain on venture capital, but none of them were very attractive and I didn't want to insult anyone -- at least not in such a blunt and direct way. It saddens me to think that fear of losing money is what causes so many losses -- and I guess it's just more visible now -- but the investors aren't the only ones who lose when money and/or carpets are pulled from beneath ventures.

The first one to which I refer is Diggit! Image Search Engine, and while I just thought of a real and practical use for it today (while I thought it was neat and all that), I only played with it because I liked it before. Also in the land of Where can I find it? was All-in-One Search Page whose usefulness is hard to dispute. All search engines don't find the same things in the same way (which can get to be an altogether different subject, but I'll practice some discipline today), so it's nice to have a few pages around that submit your queries to a number of different engines, thereby increasing your odds -- that seem to turn maddeningly on a letter or two.

We'll miss ya, folks . . .

Faisal's Quotes

Faisal Jawdat -- I give him his attribution though I have not met him and did not ask his permission -- I think of this as a sort of a referral with a small sample attached. I was impressed by the quote:

Society never advances. It recedes as fast on one side as it gains on the other. For every thing that is given, something is taken. Society aquires new arts, and looses old instincts...The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet ...His notebooks impair his memory; his libraries overload his wit; the insurance office increases the number of accidents; and it may be a question whether machinery does not encumber; whether we have not lost by refinement some energy, by a Christianity entrenched in establishments and forms, some vigor of wild virtue....The arts and inventions of each period are only its costume, and do not invigorate men. The harm of the improved machinery may compensate its good.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

. . . which shows just as much in taste for the selector as it does in wit, wisdom and perception in the author.

Credit to Quote File - e

Condit Passes Lie Detector Test? [my stress, my question -- EC]

Anything a little suspicious? No, I don't mean with the story itself -- Am I echoing the Drudge Report? Actually, if you check my blogs, I've been on this story a long time -- and I live in the same neighborhood where Chandra Levy, Joyce Chiang and other victims whose assaults may or may not be related to this case.

I even learned from the staff here that Joyce and her brother Roger lived in my building at one time. Joyce was last seen just a block away from my favorite hangout, Kramerbooks & afterwords, A Café . If I squint a little outside my front door, I can see the bridge that crosses into Georgetown around 22nd & P Streets, NW, not that far from where passersby found Christine Mirzayan’s body in the Summer of 1998 around the 3600 block of Canal Road NW where she apparently died from blows to the head and was cast down a hill covered with ivy, high grasses, shrubs and little trees.

Police don't believe there are any connections between these crimes -- at least that's what they're saying to the press. Who knows what they might or might not disclose in the interests of their own investigative options? Anyway, I don't know whether it's a consolation to feel that this isn't the work of a serial killer. It could be good for Chandra Levy -- if she turns up alive somewhere. On the other hand, it is of little comfort to me that several people may be responsible for any harm to so many respectable young ladies who have such promising futures. If one has to ask, "Who could do such a thing?" doesn't one have to ask also whether it is a whole band of culprits committing crimes with impunity while nobody sees any of their activities? It may be news for a lot of people, but for me it's a neighborhood issue.

Much is made of this lie-detector test as a means of collecting evidence: I don't know how far you could go with such results. Going to an independent examiner, though, is too much like a pre-emptive strike. It is the summary behavior of Condit that looks suspicious and not any particular individual acts.

As to accepting the independent examiner, I have to side with the Police -- it means nothing. There are no controls, nobody really knows how it was conducted -- repetition over a series of trials is very important in order to get accurate results -- and I don't know about anyone else, but I haven't heard how many [paper] tapes were run, how or whether they were compared or the exact duration of the examination. It serves one well who wishes to evade, but it doesn't serve the process of accumulating evidence at all. For it to mean anything at all, it shoud be run by the central authoritative source that holds the evidentiary repository.

There is another side to this issue: Nobody really passes a lie detector test -- we don't really have "lie detectors" -- we have polygraphs. It is a polygraph because it graphs a number of physical responses, like pulse, blood pressure, skin galvanometry, thoracic and abdominal respiration. In a videotaped session -- which could also turn up procedural flaws -- one might also be able to detect pupillary dilation. This is a good indication of how people feel about what they are saying, but it doesn't really indicate whether they are lying. It is understandable how somebody might fear such a "test." One has to think, I've been so tired lately -- what if I yawn periodically? Will they make something of that? It is possible to be disturbed by the examiner's tone. One imagines the examiner being silent for a while and then speaking suddenly (one might imagine a policeman shouting during the test) -- what kind of response does surprise show? What if there is guilt or remorse about a parallel issue not directly involved in the crime? What if you didn't really do anything, but you feel a sense of responsibility. In Condit's case, supposing he weren't involved in her disappearance, he should wonder whether he could have helped find Chandra if he had been more forthcoming earlier in the investigation.

To someone reading the newspaper, reasons and motivations can be rather vague. To somebody who has never had legal counsel available, it isn't as evident why many public personalities react the way they do. First of all, having an attorney can be a little like having a gun -- if you feel threatened, even for an instant -- you are apt to call on any means at your disposal to remove the threat. Once you retain an attorney, for whatever reason, even curiosity leads you to call to find out about possibilities.

Dentists, physicians and attorneys are seldom alone at cocktail parties -- even the potential for free professional advice will draw a crowd. It may seem that I'm making light of this issue, but I'm not. Everybody feels slighted at one time or another, and many times when it happens, the injured party would like to be able to spend an hour with an attorney just to ask questions to determine whether to get a lawyer. Your lawyer's first interest isn't whether you look guilty when you act in your own interest, it's how you might be defended, how you might be positioned, what you can prove and what the prosecution might be able to establish. Your attorney wants to know "whether you did it," and will probably ask -- and if you deny any culpability -- the counselor may not believe you.

The knowledge or assumption of guilt will determine the strategy of the defense: It is also difficult for the layperson to understand the motivations of a lawyer. Would you like to go into a trial aggressively defending someone and emerge with egg on your face? What would that do for your client? What would that do for your career? It is the nature of this relationship that guides both the behavior of the barrister and the customer.

If you've ever heard a physician say, "This is not a good sign," then you probably have a pretty good idea what it feels like for your legal representation to say, "We have to be very careful here,very careful." Unfortunately, that's the point at which most of us start listening.

In another twist, The Reliable Source with Lloyd Grove and Barbara Martinez, Grove cites in his article Iron Man and Marshmallow Man? in a subheading called THIS JUST IN . . . (washingtonpost.com)

Appearing on this weekend's installment of the PBS show "This Is America With Dennis Wholey," [Marlin] Fitzwater says about Rep. Gary Condit's public behavior: "If he was involved in any way, then he did the right thing for himself. If he is innocent, then he's done all the wrong things." Fitzwater elaborates: "I think he has some involvement. . . . Maybe peripheral, maybe even unintentional, but I think he is a key at some point."

I argue alternating sides of this story, but emphasis has to be placed on the above quote: This is roughly what I was going to say, anyway. Another way to put it is that Condit's whole suite of behavior suggests that he had some involvement. While it is hard to treat the Enquirer story as credible, there is a series of events that might suggest that Levy was pregnant -- she calls her Aunt with "good news." Two options would occur to me in a situation such as hers (1) She got a job, or (2) She was going to have a baby. I entertained another thought, too, which was that while she was so optimistically hoping and believing that just the right opportunity would come along for her (to stay here and develop her career or whatever her specific plans were), someone with bad intentions and what she wanted to hear used this edge to take advantage of her. While Condit's behavior is indeed suspect -- especially after prescribing that Clinton take his medicine without flinching -- there are too many other plausible scenarios that fit the situation at least as well as his involvement.

Reuters calls the story, in a feed picked up by Yahoo! Lawyer Says Condit Passed Lie-Detector Test. This adds some perspective to the description. Other headlines such as the story in the feed under Top Stories - Reuters is called Lawyer: Condit Passes Privately Administered Lie Detector Test. Yahoo! is doing a good job with Chandra's disappearance in more than just descriptive and honest reporting -- there is some thoroughness here, too -- a whole collection in its Full Coverage feature called In-depth coverage about Missing Intern Chandra Levy with a pointer to a Society & Culture Directory on Missing Persons at the bottom of the column.

Story: Condit Passes Lie Detector Test
Credit Washington Post

You tell 'em Top Gun-ohm: I ain't sayin' nuffin' this time;-}.
DRUDGE REPORT 2001®

HomeRuns.com

Don't try this address after July 12

Another one bites the dust:

Not to be disrespectful, but the Internet World is changing steadily.

HomeRuns.com didn't last quite a year in DC, and it started about 5 years ago in Boston (as I understand its legacy), but the end came fast for casual observers -- although it wasn't a rush decision.

Some of the employees seemed to have sensed something when a standing inventory was taken. A part of this is that the long-distance medium hasn't done well -- yet -- with "short run" commerce. I wouldn't wonder: If I wanted to order a book from Amazon -- I'd know that I could find out whether the company had it -- before I'd ever be able to find it by combing local bookstores. I might even be able to put in an advance order -- before it was printed -- which might be valuable if I were in the midst of a hot task and could order a reference with anticipation -- without stopping. If I wanted a pizza, or if I were going to take a trip to the grocery -- I think I'd use it as a way to step out for a break and get some fresh air.

If I were a few years older, I might consider taking my constitutional at a time of my choosing -- especially if I were already retired -- or even semi-retired. Part of the problem is that Internet culture has only reached a fraction of the Seniors Market, as much as we'd like to believe otherwise. It is all well and good to cite those exceptions among our personal acquaintances -- the aware few, and commercials that underscore the participation of seniors abound, but the truth of the matter is that this is a very hard market to reach -- though none of us are getting any younger.

Maybe this is the note on which investors and entrepreneurs should end. Venture capital is withdrawing at alarming rates and we have gone far beyond a panic. A panic is a quick reaction (knee-jerk as some of my friends prefer) that corresponds to a short period of overcompensation, after which balance is restored. This is not what is happening: More Voodoo economics? The market response is a wholesale rejection of the prophecy for our New Internet World.

This new world isn't here yet -- the key word here is yet. I don't mean that it will wait centuries, I mean that it is a cultural change -- and one that could happen rather quickly. What could change it? Advertising: Internet advertising -- in many cases, but not all -- preaches to the choir. The most fundamental idea of advertising is to inform: Mailing campaigns and radio/television advertising might be more appropriate because it reaches people who are not already there, or in this case already here. Persuasion will help after people are aware of the possibilities, and not before.

The answer is not to give up hope: All the promise is still here. It may be true that you can bring a horse to water without getting it to drink -- but it doesn't mean that it is never worthwhile to bring that horse to water. That's what we need in this market -- more horse sense.
HomeRuns.com

This is worth checking out: What's New in the WinZip® 8.1 Beta

Ain't It Cool Link

Chris Pirillo [also see]put this in today's Lockergnome Windows Daily [A newsletter For the World's Most Curious Users], but he didn't include a link as he usually does, so I'm including it here for anyone who may have glossed over what they normally might have stopped to investigate:

HARRY KNOWLES \ If you haven't figured it out yet, we're using the space usually reserved for GnomeTERMS [A regular feature of Lockergnome Windows Daily, usually dedicated to technical terms. --EC] to introduce some of the folks who have made the Internet what it is (and what it will be). Ya know, like Harry Knowles, the Internet's first recognized film critic. Well, he's not really a critic, per se, but his site, "Ain't it Cool News" has bucked the system and pumped out movie reviews often before the studio is ready. You see, Harry and his merry band of "advocates" sneak into test screenings and post their reactions to the site: a cornucopia of reviews, gossip, and the latest Hollywood scoops. That's not too bad for a man who lives nowhere near Sunset Boulevard. It just goes to show you how the Internet has obliterated many barriers. Don't remind me of the dancing hamster thing, please. [Credit to Lockergnome]

Aw, c'mon, Chris, I was only tryin' ta help . . .
Ain't It Cool News

This blogger post (that sounds like a dangerous implement, doesn't it -- I would have made it out of the trenches without a scratch, but here comes this perjoratesian with a loaded blogger post, and sadly, I was never the same after that . . .) is intended largely for Roger Guisinger, but anybody could buy this book.

It reinforces an assertion of mine (I won't mention a word about the effect of patents on creativity -- Oh Blast! Too late.) that originality is over-rated. Well, it doesn't say so in that many words -- good authors usually manage with many fewer words than I use -- even if they don't write in English. The idea of this book isn't too far from what programmers used to complain about all the time when they'd have to move from assignment to assignment reinventing the wheel -- that there are ready solutions for most design problems and it's just a matter of seeing the match between them and applying the prescribed technique.

Sure, I could have joined an affiliate program, but how many people have visited this page so far?

I'd make millions, of course -- but that would be too easily. Roger would catch on right away.
Amazon.com: buying info: Design Patterns

The Oxford English Dictionary, or OED as it's known to its old friends -- though come to think of it I haven't heard a word of it from Boswell, Johnson or Goldsmith down at the Boar's Head -- offers individual subscriptions that poor students couldn't really pay in my day: $550 every year. That was tuition in my day -- I exaggerate, but by saying so I understate. If this money's too steep for you (I keep slipping right off the bills), they do offer a "Word of the Day" free of charge.


Get it while you can -- the nature of the Internet is changing . . .
OED Online - engagement

If you want to jump to my other blogs directly, they're here:

My Journal Blog

My Radio Blog

U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington Has Assigned a Veteran Homicide Prosecutor to Oversee Investigation of Missing Intern

This story might be a good follow-up to my previous posting. The original source was cited as this page at the http://www.newsweek.msnbc.com/ website.

On Joyce Chiang and Chandra Levy

Research Note: Memo to the File.

I'm calling this collection of links "Research Note: Memo to the File" for at least two reasons. The first is that "Memo to the File" is an expression that has often been used to speak of work that doesn't get done -- more explicitly, File Number 13, or simply "File13" means the wastebasket, trash can or whatever it is in your idiom -- maybe they say "recycle the file" these days -- or maybe they will now.

This isn't meant to be a direct criticism of anyone in particular -- but I don't know -- maybe it should be. I know that so many people "go missing" that the task of figuring out what happened to them is unimaginably difficult. That's not to say that "nobody knows [what happened to them]," though. While speculating on the Chandra Levy case, I recently spoke to a friend as he waited for a bus that serves Dupont Circle and he told me how he had witnessed an unrelated murder, identified all the suspects, but it didn't come to trial because those he claimed were participants essentially "evaporated" -- disappeared without a trace. His point seemed to be, consistent with our conversation, that there are many people who see or know something, but say nothing -- for a variety of reasons that aren't hard to imagine.

Given this, the "presumption of the worst," the dead-end leads and generally the "needle in the haystack" syndrome -- there is a huge amount of information through which to sift, including a lot of distractions such as false reports and factors which may be related, but are eventually discounted, ignored or disregarded -- usually because no connection can be established. I am persuaded by the nature of research and investigation, that while most of the "intelligence gathering" is "leg work," most of the problem solving activities involve "head work," or the tremendous cognitive task of determining which "pieces of the puzzle" are valid and establishing the connections between them. To look at an accumulation of evidence (and a lot of unsubstantiated suspicion like "gut feeling" or "hunches/intuition" and "instinct") and say "this says something to me" is one thing -- to figure out what it says and follow it to a solution is quite another thing -- simply a complicated "thing."

The case for hunches is very poorly made, but can easily be explained as the assembly of scenarios which we constantly and unconsciously "spin" or "weave" from a knowledge of cases that vary only slightly from the mystery at hand. Police are fatigued of uninformed speculation, largely because "jumping to a conclusion" usually leads to a lot of unnecessary work -- the proverbial "wild goose chase." Once a possibility has been established, there is a certain obligation to challenge, contest and verify results -- which means to investigate further -- or to be distracted with more field work, more leg work. In the case of false leads from uninformed speculation, it means either ignoring evidence that is presumed redundant -- yesterday's rejects -- or another frustrating trip "back to the drawing board" to see whether "something was missed" and a line of speculation does indeed merit further investigation.

As a researcher, rather than an investigator or detective, anyone who reads this little essay of mine can benefit from information which has already been gathered. I found 54 links on the Internet, but after writing this much to frame the way in which this information should be "sifted" -- with a "critical eye" -- I won't have time to follow each link just to see whether the search engine delivered me "valid hits," notwithstanding all the bifurcations on which each valid link might lead me. I've decided to post all of them here (1) as a personal reminder to myself, a sort of "tickler" that will allow me to "dispatch" each lead as I have time; (2) to be able to refer to the collection of links when discussing this issue with friends and researchers; and, (3) to allow anyone who stumbles across this page to be able to start his/her own investigation.

I don't want to add to the uninformed speculation with more unsubstantiable theory, but something that has made me curious was that I have heard that both young women were from California. Looking at common elements, we have to consider both region of birth and age range; culture may play a role, as may persons in common circles with the women, and their origins may both play into this connection. My interim question that I can't seem to move past at the moment is "Is there a connection between this case and California?" Another variation on this is "Is there some DC-California connection?"

Something that set me on this line of thinking goes back to the early nineties when some friends of mine were discussing Joyce Chiang's disappearance: One said, "I'm sure this girl is dead, and police haven't been investigating all these prostitute murders because they say that prostitutes are always at risk." The other answered, "But this girl wasn't a prostitute." The first returned, "No, but she was out partying, and how would the [presumed] murderer where she worked just by looking at her." I was inclined to think as well as the spate of taxi-driver murders that periodically seem to plague the area.

This could be a study on search engine hits, too. Anyway, here are the links -- as a "Research Note" -- for myself or anyone else who wants to figure out what is happening to these young women who come to the DC area:

1. MetroActive.com --- may be a repeat.


2.  Washington Post


3.  Washington Post


4.  Basket Case


5.  Washington Post


6.  Georgetown Alumni News


7.  julen.net


8.  earthops


9.  utexas news


10.  egroups messages


11.  Fox News


12.  CNN All Politics


13.  Fox News


14.  aagen archives


15.  Serial Killers


16.  GPO Access


17.  Cybersleuths


18.  tag.aircadet


19.  CityPaper


20.  Third World Women List


21.  tag.aircadet


22.  Basket Case


23.  cydom smithie archives


24.  America's Most Wanted


25.  LAFN Joyce Chiang Missing


26.  AsianWeek INS Lawyer


27.  a.nderson.net smith86 news


28.  lainet.com personal page news item


29.  The Hoya News


30.  Metroactive Papers Saratoga News


31.  Wellesley Shakespeare?


32.  nknu Writing?


33.  nknu Writing?


34.  smith92 news


35.  Wellesley Shakespeare again?


36.  A Canadian College Alumni News


37.  A California Elementary School Awards Report


38.  Georgetown Alumni News


39.  AOL Personal Page Year in Review


40.  julen.net "mind"


41.  AsianWeek


42.  DCWatch Mail


43.  Egroups List Message


44.  EChinatown.net Accountants Directory


45.  aagen.org archives


46.  DCWatch Mail


47.  GPO Access


48.  Cybersleuths News


49.  CityPaper


50.  Smith.edu Personal Page Archive


51.  Third World Women List Archive


52.  exnet.iastate.edu/files/fs1997/19970324101010.txt


53.  FreeRepublic.com Forum

Just a short note: I'll be blogging more from here as soon as I reconfigure some of my tools. I got that other blogging tool and I added another "journal" blog to the other one I have. I just referenced Blogger today on my chat, messenger and realtime conversation discussion -- that's where this post is coming from, in case you'd ever wondered. My primary news weblog right now I call the Radio Blog because it is posted out of Radio Userland. It is primary because it is the only one I currently have that ties the 'blog to the newsfeeds that I read. So if you find a short list on one of my blogs, you can try the other two. That's it for today, folks, whoever you are!

I tried another blogging tool: I typed, "This is a test. I don't know what this is going to do, but then I'm a little burnt tonight from everything else that I've done today. Nothing is quite 'making it' at the moment: My eyes are a mess; I guess I've been staring at this monitor longer than I thought. I'll make this short: If it seems to work, I'll come back and try it regularly." I came back to the server and found nothing new. I'll have to try another time.