Over the years I've felt a great deal of frustration at the goings-on of our government. I paid many thousands of dollars a year in taxes, yet it often seemed that my voice was not being represented. In fact, my viewpoint was often the subject of ridicule among the chattering classes who felt that they knew better than me how to spend my money and run my life. I know that many other people also feel this way, as evidenced by the explosion of talk radio and libertarian and conservative weblogs.
But despite my anger at being ignored and marginalized, I never lashed out at anyone or became violent, and neither did my fellow travellers on this road. At our hearts, we're law-abiding and orderly folk and would prefer to live without making a lot of waves (which, not so coincidentally, is why we fight so hard against what we consider to be bad legislation).
Why am I bringing this up? Well, the anti-war crowd seems to be very frustrated at losing the debate over this war. Rather than suck it up and work through legitimate channels, they are engaging in destructive and violent behavior (exactly the kind of thing they accuse us of at every chance they get).
What really ticks me off about this crowd is that the rest of us are having to pay for their tantrums through our taxes (and insurance). Worse still are those college students who are wasting our money by walking out and disrupting classes. If I'm going to be forced to pay for their damn education, then they can at least do me the courtesy of being grateful for that education by taking advantage of the chance they've been given. If they're so unhappy with America, then they can give up their slot to someone else who deserves it. After all, why take money from someone you hate?
I want some of what the Iraqi government people are smoking. Whatever it is, it must be some damn good stuff, if they think we'll believe crap like this...
Iraq's foreign minister said if coalition troops keep fighting, "they will burn in the desert."It must be nice to have your own personal reality distortion field.
"America and Britain have no choice but to surrender and withdraw," Foreign Minister Naji Sabri said Monday. "They will not leave our land safe and sound if they continue to be stubborn in their aggression. We will confront them with all we have ... No one will be safe."
Better now, though I was going through withdrawal symptoms there for a while, since the *$%^#@$ cable modem went down around 6:00 and just came back up. Argh!
No, I'm not referring to the addlepated "peace" protesters, but that foul fowl know as the grackle. I spent a significant amount of time outside yesterday cleaning up the yard and mowing. I have a bad habit of ignoring the back yard area during the winter, so I had a lot of leaves and junk built up back there. As I was bagging the leaves (which was no mean feat, given the winds we had yesterday), I didn't give much thought to the fact that I was standing under a big tree. Or at least I didn't until I noticed something odd on my jacket. One of those filthy little buggers up in the tree had dropped a little gift for me.
Let's just say that I was less than thrilled. It's lucky (for the bird, anyway), that Denton has this pesky little ordinance about discharging firearms in the city limit, or that bird would have been reduced to a fine red mist and a cloud of feathers floating on the wind. I briefly contemplated a silent attack using my high-powered assault slingshot, but my temper cooled before doing anything rash.
I saw this article at Rachel Lucas's site last night, but my internet access went down before I had a chance to write about it myself.
I have zero sympathy and zero tolerance for anyone who accosts a member of our armed services or anyone related to them. It's not "speech", it's not "dissent", and it's damn sure not patriotic. The actions of these subhuman vermin are anti-American and dispicable, verging on traitorous.
I just hope that I never see anyone try this in front of me.
Emperor Misha has his own take on this.
I am being frustrated by cable modem outages. You don't realize how much you use it until it doesn't work. The system has been going down randomly for the past few days, usually in the evenings.
But I experienced a power-related cable modem outage this morning. We had a very short power outage this morning (just one or two seconds). Whenever the power takes a hit, I have to force a DHCP lease renewal before my internet connection will work again. Since my router and cable modem are protected by my UPS, it makes me suspect that Charter doesn't have a backup power supply on their headend.
I left early today and met up with some friends to go to the Dallas Auto Show. There were a lot of nice vehicles there and some interesting new concept vehicles.
For example, I wouldn't mind having one of these:
The Dodge Magnum SRT-8
And while I tend to like driving trucks and SUVs, if I were going to drive a car, I think this would be it:
The Mercury Marauder
Hmmm... I seem to be detecting a trend towards big V-8's. Call me old-fashioned, but there's just something about a big rear-wheel drive V-8 that no high-revving 4-banger can touch (even if I wouldn't mind having one of these).
I saw a brief video of the Iraqi Information Minister* on TV this morning. I thought it humerous because I could hear him talking, but I couldn't see him because he was completely hidden behind a wall of microphones. Now if I could just find a way to similarly turn off his rantings and ravings (along with much of what is coming out of the Arab world).
* I consider any country that has a Ministry of Information as untrustworthy simply for having such an organization.
This incident had me seeing red.
MONTPELIER, Vt. -- A group of Vermont teen-agers threw rocks at a uniformed female Vermont National Guard sergeant last week, in the latest example of a service member facing hostility in the United States.I've tried really hard to maintain a level of civility concerning anti-war types, but I have zero sympathy and zero tolerance for anyone who would attack a member of our armed services or call them names like "baby killer" and "murderer." I hope that I never see something like this happen in front of me.
National Guard spokesman Capt. Jeff Roosevelt said the woman was not injured in Friday's incident, which took place in Plainfield, but said the woman had decided she would no longer wear her uniform outside of work.
"We are a very tolerant state and people in the military also expect to be treated with the same courtesy and respect that we show to others," Lt. Col. Scott Stirewalt, director of security at the Vermont National Guard, told WCAX news.
The teens blocked the sergeant as she went into a store and again on the way out, yelling obscenities at her along the way, Roosevelt said. The group also threw small stones at her car as she drove away, he added.
The sergeant said she believed the protesters had taken part in an anti-war demonstration in Montpelier that day. National Guard troops are often deployed to such events to help keep the peace.
"There were various profanities directed in her direction, along the line of '[expletive] murderer, [expletive] baby killer,'" Stirewalt said. "It culminated with some of the individuals throwing rocks at her, and as testament to her disciplined professionalism, she got in her car and left the area."
Link via a small victory.
Tonight was range night. I think I may have eye strain from too much time at the computer over the past week. I was suffering from CSS¹-induced CHS² syndrome. Out to 30 feet the target was too blurry to be useful, although by the end of the hour I was seeing a little better, though my main problem is seeing the front sight, which is the most important factor in handgun shooting (I'm far-sighted).
To add to the fun, the Kimber started ejecting spent casings straight back, hitting me right smack in the forehead three times (which is fairly unpleasant with .45ACP). It tended to induce a bit of flinch.
Next week will be better.
¹CSS - Can't See Shit
²CHS - Can't Hit Shit
This nit was so ripe that I couldn't resist picking it. I've noticed that a lot of the addlepated local media is using the phrase "War On Iraq" in all of their newscasts. I think our history of declaring war on damn near everything (poverty, crime, drugs, terrorism, etc.) has made it impossible for them to phrase this correctly. Saying "war on Iraq" sounds like we're trying to wreak havoc and kill innocents. We're waging a war in Iraq to remove the tyrannical government and its sympathizers.
It another big race weekend at Texas Motor Speedway. Somewhere on the order of 400,000 rabid NASCAR fans will descend on the area, backing up traffic and getting in the way of local residents. Every Friday before a race weekend I end up stuck in a traffic jam on 377 at 1171.
Argh.
It's too bad I can't have those front-mounted rocket launchers I've always wanted for my Avalanche....
Some good news in the battle against telemarketers:
Nat'l Do Not Call Sign Up Starts in JulyIn the past I've been of two minds about this kind of thing. It offends my libertarian sensibilities. However, the plague of telemarketers finally convinced me that intervention was needed in this area. Those deceptive bastards were incapable of policing themselves. It reached the point where I wouldn't answer the phone if I didn't recognize the name or number on the caller ID. My phone would ring four or five times each evening (and I would often come home to see that there had been about the same number of calls during the day). Now that I'm on the Texas do not call list I hardly ever get sales calls anymore. Perhaps now I'll be able to eradicate those final few that think they're immune to Texas law.
Mar 26, 5:17 AM (ET)
By DAVID HO
WASHINGTON (AP) - People fed up with unwanted telemarketing can sign up in July for a national do-not-call list that will block many sales calls, the Federal Trade Commission said Tuesday.
The FTC will launch a Web site on July 1 so consumers can register online for the free service, the agency said.
Hat tip to my friend Rodney for emailing this article.
I've been listening to Fox News on my XM Radio on the way to and from work for the past few days in order to get the latest war coverage. It's simply an audio feed directly off their cable TV network, except for the commercials. They run special content during the commercial breaks on XM, most of which appear to be filler (entertainment updates, consumer watch segments, etc). One of these I heard yesterday purported to be a "financial news update." The whole segment was spent explaining how you could get a reward for turning in a tax cheat to the IRS.
The whole thing rubbed me the wrong way. It was advocating turning in people you know to the government for a non-violent crime. I don't have a problem with rewards programs for real crimes, but for tax cheats? It sounds like a recipe for disaster. All it would take would be one disgruntled former spouse, lover, or even employee to turn someone's life upside down. There's a reason that the IRS is the most feared and hated agency in the US government.
Oh, and they reminded you to report your reward on your next tax return. Wouldn't want to cheat Uncle Sam, would you?
I don't normally go for ad hominem attacks, but Michael Moore pisses me off no end. While I won't comment on his size, given my own particular situation, I have no qualms saying that he's a gaseous windbag spewing noxious, false bullshit. So it was with some interest that I came across this campaign:
BUY A GUN FOR (TO SPITE) MICHAEL MOORE DAY-APRIL 15
It would be such fun to inform his noxiousness that people are out there buying guns because of him and his propaganda crap fake-umentary.
Besides, there's a gun show at Dallas Market Hall on April 12th and 13th. That sounds like a good enough excuse to me.
Many have written on the topic of news coverage and the so-called setbacks in the war in Iraq. While there are those in the media who have taken an anti-American slant (*cough* BBC *cough), I'm concerned with the picture being painted by those who have not chosen such a path. One of the problems as I see it is that the media in general lack the ability to maintain perspective and look at things in terms of a larger plan.
My fear is that such coverage will convince some to waver in their support of the war and agitate for the withdrawal of our troops. So far, it appears that the American people understand that this war will not be without losses on our side. I just hope that they can continue to ignore the frantic reporting.
Once the switch was thrown and the first coalition forces crossed the border, we were committed. It is not possible to turn back now without doing incalculable harm both to our country and to the people of Iraq. Some anti-war protesters may genuinely believe that it's possible to bring the troops home at any time, but they are ignoring reality. If it can be shown that the infliction of casualties will persuade the United States to withdraw forces, no one will take this country seriously for years to come. It has been American weakness in the past that has emboldened the terrorists (according to one source I read recently, Bin Laden saw the withdrawal of American forces from Somalia as evidence that the US could be defeated and he stepped up his efforts).
The United States will be viewed as weak and without honor, which will make us fair game for more and bigger attacks in the future. And it doesn't matter whether Bin Laden himself is still alive, there are more like him waiting in the wings--just look at some of our college campuses these days. At the same time, we will have screwed the Iraqi people twice. When we let them down in 1991, Saddam Hussein killed thousands of his own citizens who came out in favor of his removal. We owe these poor bastards this time. Let's not screw them again. Even if Saddam Hussein is dead, withdrawing our troops will not save these people as long as any of his government continues to exist.
The only option now is to see the mission through to completion. The only way to safely bring our troops home is through victory. Let's hope that it happens sooner, rather than later.
This gadget is kind of cool (in a geeky sort of way):
The Forever Flashlight uses no batteries or bulbs. Instead it uses Faraday's Principle of Induction and a bright LED to produce light without batteries. The light is shaken for about 30 seconds to recharge a capacitor and it will then provide about 5 minutes of light. As the light is shaken, a magnet passes through a metal coil generating electricity. During prolonged use it can be shaken for 10-15 seconds every 2 or 3 minutes.It seems a bit expensive, but the idea is sound (although I wonder how bright it actually is).
I always carry a flashlight with me and I have a couple in the truck and at home. You never know when you'll need one.
The whole set of pictures from yesterday's rally in Dallas (minus one accidental shot of a blurry street :) ) are now available here.
I went to the rally this afternoon and then went out for dinner and watched Dreamcatcher. Which is why I only got back a little while ago.
Despite the rain, the crowd that showed up was still enthusiastic. Unfortunately, I was not really able to hear what was going on at the main rally (in front of the old courthouse). However, at the same time there were a lot of people on the sidewalk facing the street with their signs. The motorists were generally supportive, honking and waving flags. The crowd would respond to this with cheers.
I spent about an hour and a half at the rally and I ran into the du Toits, but only got a second to speak to them as they were on their way home (the rain finally got to them).
I took 104 pictures which I will grovel through to create a gallery later. For now, here are a few samples: (click on image for full-size, but beware that they are at their original size of 1760x1168; I will downsize them when creating the gallery)
The French were not too popular with this crowd:
And neither were the Dixie Chicks:
Bring me their heads on a platter:
There were a number of Iraqis who know what the situation really is:
Continued under "More..."
I found this one amusing:
Finally, the real drum(s) of war:
This lady gave one of the "peace" protestors a piece of her mind:
Speaking of which, the contingent of peaceniks was kind of puny:
In contrast, the pro-American people stretched the length of the block on the sidewalk and there was a large gathering in front of the old courthouse (in a way, it was like two rallies):
A pro-America rally will be held in downtown Dallas today at 3:00pm.
Link via Emperor Misha I.
I just had the misfortune of watching an AARP commercial for getting a "prescription drug benefit" as part of Medicare. Some woman was having a "summit" in her house and made it seem as if everyone agrees that this is a good idea.
My immediate thought, which I yelled back at the TV (TV is really bad for my blood pressure), was "Who the hell do you think you are that I have to pay for your drugs?" It really pisses me off that some people feel that they are entitled to get the rest of us to pay for their drugs. It's irresponsible and it smacks of socialism. If the program were self-supporting through premiums, I wouldn't care. But they're asking for billions of dollars from the rest of us, which is simply unacceptable.
<sarcasm>It's nice to see that "peace" protesters are respectful of other people's property.</sarcasm> It's too bad that it is illegal to shoot these bastards. They'd make great sniper practice.
TAOS, N.M. — War protesters trashed the grounds around a northern New Mexico home owned by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, placing "No War" stickers and throwing children's clothes around the property, authorities say.
No arrests were made during the demonstration Thursday, said Lt. Eddie Martinez of the Taos County Sheriff's Department.
The protesters were among 400 to 500 who began demonstrating at Taos Plaza and marched along U.S. 64 to two Rumsfeld properties at El Prado, a couple of miles northwest of Taos, Martinez said.
"They got onto his property, and that would be trespassing," he said. "There's issues and laws they need to understand. If their choice is a peace demonstration, then they should keep the peace."
I must be somewhat obtuse, because I received a one-line email with no subject that has me scratching my head:
America! Love it or leave it! We have 15 pets!Is that directed at me? What's the deal with the pets? I'm confused....
Everyone else is doing a far better job of war coverage than I ever could, so I guess I'll stick to my usual stuff....
The 802.11g specification is still a draft standard, so there will be some potential problems deploying products based on that standard. So despite my recent problems with a WPC54G card, I still like Linksys products. Which is why I'm a bit concerned about the news today that Cisco is planning to buy Linksys. I understand that Cisco makes good products in the corporate environment, but I've not had much exposure to them. I'm a software guy, so their products are hidden from me at work and I haven't used them at home. My hope is that they will keep the Linksys product line distinct from their other products. This could happen, since the reason given for Cisco's purchase is that they wanted to get into the home wireless LAN business, which is an area where Linksys is very strong.
I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens.
I always seem to be disconnected when things break. I listened to Fox on XM on the way home and watched some of the news at 6:00pm. All signs pointed to a delay, so I went to do other things.
I cleaned a couple of my guns and played around with this laptop to get the wireless working. I gave up on the WPC54G for now and got a D-Link DWL-650+. As soon as I go online I find that bombing has begun, although it's not the main attack.
I guess it's time now to take the orange alert seriously. I think I'll take Kim duToit's advice and pack the shotgun as soon as I convert it to pistol grip (like Denton is going to be a target :) ).
PayPal's response to my customer service inquiry leaves a bit to be desired:
Dear Aubrey,This sounds like they were required to respond, but didn't know what to say.
Thank you for contacting PayPal.
We appreciate the time you've taken to write us with your comments about our service.
PayPal continuously strives to provide you with the highest quality website features and navigation system. We carefully consider every feedback email we receive and appreciate your suggestions.
Thank you very much for your feedback.
If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us again.
Sincerely,
LuShawn
PayPal Customer Service
I've been seeing some back-and-forth between posters on one of the email lists to which I am subscribed concerning a change in PayPal's acceptable use policy. So I decided to go check it out for myself. I was less than pleased with what I read. Here's the offending section:
You may not use PayPal to sell any firearm manufactured after 1898. Certain related items and high-capacity ammunition magazines are also prohibited, as described in more detail below. In addition, it is the responsibility of users to abide by all applicable laws when dealing with the sale of permitted antique firearms, ammunition, replicas, militaria and other associated items.What this does is prohibit the use of PayPal to make payments for sales of legal firearms that are not antiques. Since PayPal is a private entity, they have the right to dictate these terms, but that doesn't mean that I agree with them.
When you sign into PayPal you are required to agree with the new terms and conditions. I declined the new terms this morning, which just means that I am only delaying their effectiveness until June 4, 2003 (when they become effective whether I've agreed or not). I sent the following to PayPal customer service this morning:
It was with consternation that I read your new acceptable use policy concerning firearm sales. While I am not a seller, I am a law-abiding collector of firearms. As a private entity, I agree that you have the right to restrict the use of your service. However, I will not continue to use the service under these terms. As PayPal bills itself as a payment service, as long as no laws were broken in the transaction, PayPal should only concern itself with brokering payment.The people on the email list were suggesting a boycott of PayPal. I'm not quite ready to go to that extreme, as I'd like to give them a chance to respond. However, I will not do business with anti-gun organizations.I will continue to monitor this situation in the hope that PayPal will discontinue this misguided policy. However, I will close my account in June if the policy continues, rather than become subject to the new terms.
One of my problem traits is that I have a tendency to be a packrat. I've been keeping my spare change in a large plastic Haloween pumpkin (the kind that kids use to gather their loot) for years and it finally reached the point of absurdity. So over the past three days I've been taking parts of the change to Coinstar machines in the area. With today's final load, I've converted a little over $183.00. To give you an idea how bad it was, today's load had 5411 pennies (yes, that's $54.11 just in pennies). I would estimate the weight of the bag that I carried into the Tom Thumb today at between 30 and 40 pounds. In a way, it was a little embarassing. They put the machines at the front of the store in front of the checkout lines and they're very loud.
At least I'm not as bad as the guy described here (who did $8105 in coins in one session).
I've updated my guns page to include my latest acquisitions:
The Nagant was definitely an impulse buy. I went to the show on Saturday (apparently I left about the time Rachel Lucas arrived) looking for a scope for my Bullpup. I found a scope but ended up browsing the rest of the show. I stopped at this carbine and looked it over. It caught my eye because it was Soviet-made, stamped 1945, and in good condition (the stock had been repaired, but it was pretty well done).I printed out a copy of a manual* created in the 1950's by the Army's ordinance corps so that I will be able to take it down and clean it. As soon as the ammo arrives I'm going to schedule some range time to try it out.
* If anyone is interested in manuals for a lot of old military guns, Cheaper Than Dirt sells a CD containing them (in PDF form). I can't get to their website right now, or I'd post a link to it. The item number is 'MGR-861'.
I missed the president's speech as I didn't get around to turning the TV on until 7:15. I was surprised it went that quickly, but then I guess when you're being direct and to the point it doesn't take much.
Now comes the horrible last-minute waiting until we see how this whole thing unfolds. I'm going to be worrying about the worst that can happen and hoping for the best.
One of my criteria for evaluating notebooks was the size and quality of the keyboard. I'm a touch typist and the keyboard makes a big difference to me. The keyboard needs to be big enough to accomodate my hands (and should ideally be close to full size). Further, it needs to have a layout that makes sense (it should mimic a full size keyboard wherever possible).
The reason I mention this is that the Toshiba laptops that I saw looked good in all respects except one: I couldn't find the delete key. Maybe they had one, but I couldn't find it. Given my habits with the keyboard, not having a delete key in a sane position would drive me nuts.
I've always been kind of ambivalent about Best Buy. Today, though, they've probably lost me for good. I had decided that I wanted to get a laptop for use around the house, since I'm getting tired of being tied to my desktop (which is in my home office). After doing some online research and visiting a couple of stores, I was ready to buy today. I went in to the Best Buy in Lewisville, and after examining their available systems, I found one that I liked. The problem was that there was no one available to assist me when I was ready to buy (despite there being plenty of people around when I started looking). I think what finally did it for me was the overall noise level in the store. Combined with being ignored, it made for a very annoying experience.
I'm currently writing this entry from a laptop that I purchased at Compusa. The experience there wasn't that great, either, although they did have someone available to take my money. The salesman pushed a bit too hard to get me to buy the extended service plan (to the point of asking me afterward why I didn't buy it and almost trying to argue with me about it, even though I had politely declined), and they tried to gather my personal info at the checkout (which I also politely declined). Finally, the advertised price included two mail-in rebates, but now that I've had a chance to examine the terms (they were both online, so I couldn't see them at the time), I find that both of them want the original UPC code. I've sent in a complaint to Compusa about this, since it seems deceptive to me to advertise both rebates if you can't redeem both of them (and their ad for the laptop definitely shows both rebates, which can be seen here).
Of course, the fact that this laptop doesn't want to work with the Linksys WPC54G card doesn't make me any happier (I've currently got a cable strung across the living room to my wireless bridge). But that's an issue I'll take up with Linksys and the laptop manufacturer. This is a new model of laptop, so there may be some BIOS issues to work out.
Update: CompUSA informed me today that they will accept copies of the UPC when there are multiple rebates.
The Dixie Chicks are definitely going to take a hit for what Natalie Maines said in London. Both of the big local country stations in Dallas (96.3 KSCS and 99.5 The Wolf) are getting lots of negative feedback. Many calls are coming in to tell the stations not to play any Dixie Chicks songs. Think about that for a minute. It's a negative request line scenario. I imagine that not many publicists or managers have ever contemplated such a thing.
From my perspective, Natalie Maines' half-ass apology doesn't cut it. It's possible to oppose the war for a variety of reasons, but she chose the low road of personal vilification that I have seen so often from the anti-war types. In her case it was less offensive than the Bush-Hitler comparisons, but it was still nasty and personal. That's why I think her statement is something that can not be forgiven.
Dixie Chicks Remark Irks Country FansI was planning to take a day off on August 1 and go see their concert in Little Rock. It would have been an opportunity not only to see the concert but to do some sightseeing in Arkansas. But none of that will happen now.
NASHVILLE, Tennessee (AP)--The Dixie Chicks are drawing harsh words from country music fans for remarks singer Natalie Maines made about President George W. Bush during a recent performance in London.
Maines told the audience earlier this week, "Just so you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas.''
Angry phone calls flooded Nashville radio station WKDF-FM on Thursday, some calling for a boycott of the Texas trio's music.
The group released a statement Thursday saying they have been overseas for several weeks and "the anti-American sentiment that has unfolded here is astounding. While we support our troops, there is nothing more frightening than the notion of going to war with Iraq and the prospect of all the innocent lives that will be lost.''
In a separate statement Thursday, Maines said, "I feel the president is ignoring the opinion of many in the U.S. and alienating the rest of the world. My comments were made in frustration, and one of the privileges of being an American is you are free to voice your own point of view.''
The Dixie Chicks will kick off a U.S. tour in support of their multi-platinum album "Home'' on May 1 in Greenville, South Carolina. The group's hits include "Wide Open Spaces,'' "Ready to Run'' and "Landslide.''
While they have the right to say whatever they feel, I also have the right to spend my money with whomever I choose. Perhaps my $65.00 won't affect them much, but it's my choice where to put that money.
You'd think, though, that the Dixie Chicks would know better than to make these kinds of statements in an overseas venue. Country music fans are generally a patriotic bunch and they don't take kindly to this kind of stuff. Even if they don't like the president, they won't bring it up in front of non-US citizens.
This will quickly fall off into computer geek land, so those who don't care for such things may wish to scroll down.
I'm working on a web project that has to access some backend (legacy) systems. Of course our corporate security people don't allow direct access to these systems (and rightly so) from systems that are accessed from the internet. They have created a couple of layers of firewalls, so that when you access one of our online applications, your request is proxied and redirected across a firewall into the hosting zone (not the actual names used by our security people). Even though this zone is protected, it is still not trusted. If a system needs access to something in the internal network, it has to go through an intermediary system which has been certified and approved for crossing the firewall.
Our application has been designed to use a Web Services interface to access the data that it requires. We have put in place a set of these services on the internal network that will access the backend systems. We're using SOAP over HTTP for this. Since the security folks won't allow HTTP traffic across the firewall, we have to use another protocol (in this case it's a bit of messaging middleware). To prevent our application from having to know about all this, we created a "bridge" that takes an HTTP request and puts it into a message. There is another application running on the internal network that dequeues the message, contacts the web service, and puts the result back into a message, which gets sent to the front-end of the bridge. If this sounds like a very round-about way of doing things, it is, but we're required to do things like this for security purposes (that and our bridge code is very careful to accept requests only from validated systems/users and to send the requests to validated target URLs; it won't act as a standard HTTP proxy).
Anyway, the bridge code works fine in every instance except one. If the web service throws an exception, the bridge was not passing it on to the caller. After going back and forth through the Java code, it appears that this all comes down to a peculiarity of how Java handles URLs. The URL requires a trailing slash ('/'), which had been left off in the configuration file that specifies the target URL. Normally, this doesn't seem to matter. The SOAP client code doesn't care, and a web browser wouldn't either. If that trailing slash isn't there, a call to HttpURLConnection.getInputStream() will throw a FileNotFoundException (but only when there is a SOAP fault, which causes an HTTP 500 return code).
It's one of those things that drive you crazy. You search and search for a bug in the code only to find that it's in the JDK and it can be fixed by a small change to the URL. One of my team members has been looking at this all week and I finally got involved and spent most of today on it.
With computers, you really do have to sweat the small stuff. Now I need to get away from this computer for a while to let my eyes uncross after reading code, scanning books and manuals, and searching online discussions all day.
I have to admit that there have been times recently when I've been sorely tempted to do this:
George Doughty hung his latest hunting trophy on the wall of his Sportsman's Bar and Restaurant. Then he went to jail.After one too many times listening to my laptop swap memory simply to open a new window (or even the damn Start menu) I might respond in a similar fashion. It's like swimming in molasses.
The problem was the trophy was Doughty's laptop computer.
He shot it four times, as customers watched, after it crashed once too often.
As a public service reminder, though, I should caution against shooting your computer in a public place. Take the computer to a suitable location where it is safe (and legal) to discharge a firearm. Otherwise, like Mr. Doughty, you may be facing some annoying charges.
Link via The Volokh Conspiracy.
I have to admit that like almost everyone else I thought that Elizabeth Smart would never be found alive. We've seen so many child abductions of late that almost always seem to end in the discovery of a body (if they are ever found at all) that pessimism has become S.O.P.
At least she can go home now. I hope that she manages to get back to her normal life.
If there is one thing that drives me nuts it's people who can't manage to keep conference calls in their allotted time. I had someone schedule a call for 12:00-12:30 today. The call ended at 12:59 only after I told the host that I had another call scheduled for 1:00 (and one of the people there still wanted to keep going). The group that called the meeting had no agenda, and no plan. Further, the majority of what they wanted could have been handled via email. If they'd sent us their questions ahead of time, we could have answered most of it and spent our time ironing out the important stuff.
I can't stress enough how important it is to have a good agenda for a conference call and to alot enough time to get the work done. It's disrespectful of everyone involved to do otherwise and to just keep going after the alotted time has elapsed.
It also pissed me off because it meant that I didn't get lunch until 2:15 (which is the most important part of the problem). ;)
My Tivo decided to record Animal Precinct and Animal Cops in the off hours, so I decided to give them a chance while cleaning my guns (yes, I've been a bad boy and just now got around to cleaning them from Friday's range session). I hate to see any animal suffer needlessly, but I've always had a soft spot for dogs. Anyone who hurts a dog deserves to be hung by their toes and bled slowly.
I don't see how the people in New York and Detroit can keep doing that job. Seeing that much abuse, neglect, and depravity on a daily basis would drive me over the edge. Nevertheless, I'm glad that they're doing it.
Remind me not to get Rachel Lucas pissed off at me. I don't know the facts behind the situation she's describing, but I know how she feels. If she had comments going, I'd commiserate with her there, but I also understand how difficult the last semester of college can be (in my case I took 19 hours, 3 of which were for a project class that took every spare minute, and worked part time in the computer center).
I have a friend who is in a domestic abuse situation and I worry about her. I'd like to grind the little bastard she's seeing into the ground, but I keep it to myself most of the time because I don't see anything I can do about it (at least without landing myself in jail). It's horribly frustrating to sit by and watch someone stay in that kind of situation (it's even more frustrating to know that you can't help until she is ready for it). So far it appears to be mostly mental (which is bad enough), but I worry that it will escalate to serious injury.
I've always been a bit suspicious of unions. As a strong proponent of free association, they got off on the wrong foot with me when I learned that you have to pay union dues at many workplaces even if you don't join. I certainly understand the conditions that spawned unions in America, and there are times when collective bargaining would be helpful. But I am troubled by the "us versus them" mentality that many unions bring to any dispute. There also seems to me to be an odor of socialism wafting from many involved in union organizing (which is the kiss of death as far as I'm concerned).
My profession has been pretty resistant to unions so far, and I am not a member of any union nor is one available in my workplace, so I don't normally give much thought to them. Two recent incidents have brought them back to the foreground for me, though.
Our local news media pays a good deal of attention to the situation with American Airlines, which is owned by AMR Corporation (based in Fort Worth). American is losing money at an alarming rate and needs to make serious changes to stay in business. They are trying to negotiate deals with the unions of the flight attendants and the pilots, and the last news reports were indicating that American could be in bankruptcy by May if something doesn't change. Instead of working to save the airline, though, the flight attendants' union is trying to convince people to support more government assistance for American. That really bugs me because the rest of us have to live with the economic viability of the businesses in which we work. The rest of us would have to accept pay cuts or be out of a job. Instead, they want to steal my money to prop up a private company.
The other thing that caught my attention was the strike by musicians on Broadway. They are striking over the issue of mandatory minimum hiring. The union currently requires each musical to hire 28 musicians, whether they are needed or not. Mandatory hiring practices make everything less efficient. There is no such thing as a free job. Ultimately, the costs of those do-nothing employees are passed on to the ticket holders, driving up prices across the board. Personally, I would be ashamed if the only reason I had a job was because of a mandatory minimum in the contract.
Perhaps unions made sense in the past, but the majority of what I've seen with modern unions has convinced me that I want nothing to do with them.
Update: (03/11/2003) This morning I heard that the flight attendants union is going to work with American now that they have realized how serious the situation is.
I went to the gun show in Fort Worth yesterday. As usual, I was unable to resist making a couple of purchases, which I will photograph and write up in due course. However, I noticed something interesting that I thought I should comment on. There was a white guy who had on a FUBU shirt. I guess he never got the memo about the meaning of FUBU. It means For Us By Us, where the "Us" specifically refers to black people. I don't know what black people may think of such things, but I wouldn't do it. It somehow seems disrespectful, although on the grand scale it's a minor thing (e.x. compared to white guys who use the N-word amongst themselves, which always makes me cringe, and which is truly disrespectful).
The bridge is up and running and the Audiotron is getting its data via the wireless bridge. Next I will remove the wire, which I had strung along the edge of the ceiling using an adhesive wire track. After that I will look into hooking up the Tivo so I can get rid of the phone wire as well.
I think that I'm going to have to acquire a new cordless phone, though. My 2.4GHz Panasonic absolutely stomps my wireless connection when the talk button is pressed. Some research that I've done on Google this morning suggests that the Panasonic phone happens to be the worst offender at this. I'll either get a 5.8GHz phone or go back down to 900MHz (and whatever it is, it won't be a VTech 5.8, which is a dual-frequency phone that uses 2.4GHz for the handset).
I have almost completed my quest for wireless. The router/access point is up and running, my primary Linux system is communicating with the outside world (including incoming SSH), and I'm writing this from my laptop over the wireless network.
All that's left now is to set up the Wireless Ethernet Bridge so I can hook up the Audiotron and get rid of that unsightly wire running down the hall. I think I'll save that for tomorrow, since working with the rat's nest of wires behind the entertainment center is a real pain in the nether regions.
Ok, so I'm a geek. I enjoy playing with technology (and my job these days doesn't let me "get my hands dirty" anymore).
* Brownie points to whomever gets the reference in the title.
Brent at The Ville doesn't like PETA very much. I can't say that I blame him. In early celebration of International Eat an Animal for PETA Day I ate at Boi Na Braza for lunch today. I don't go out for lunch often, but today we celebrated a friend's 25th anniversary with the company for which we both work (and which I will not name here; I may have to start borrowing Denny Wilson's acronym "TCIDNN").
Since the 15th is a Saturday, I will have ample opportunity to go anywhere I want. Perhaps I will make a return visit to Boi Na Braza (or I could go to Fogo de Chão). Decisions, decisions. They cook great big cuts of meat on skewers and bring them around to your table until you can't stand it anymore. Nothing says, "Go to hell, PETA" like a good Brazilian churrascaria.
Link via Emperor Misha.
It appears that a few students at Denton's two universities came out to protest the liberation of Iraq (registration required).
About 250 students and faculty members gathered outside the University Union at noon to express their feelings about the possibility of the United States going to war against Iraq. Another 60 came together outside the Texas Woman's University Student Center as part of a national student protest, "Books, Not Bombs."However, there were some who came out to protest the protesters.
In answer to the protest, another student group showed support for President Bush and possible actions in Iraq.Just to put things in perspective, let's take a look at some information for both of these schools. While they don't give an exact number, this page tells us that The University of North Texas is " the fourth-largest university in Texas (more than 30,000 students)". And according to the last published factsheet from Texas Woman's University they had an enrollment for Fall 2002 of 8694 students (and they aren't exclusively a woman's university with 782 male students).
"I support the sovereignty of our country to protect us against terrorist attacks," said student Michael Wright. "I support us taking care of business so we make sure we don't get killed when we walk down the street."
Let's do a little math, shall we? For UNT, assuming a student body of 30,000 and a protest count of 250 (which includes faculty and counter-protesters, by the way), that would indicate that at most 0.83 percent of the student body was involved. At TWU, that percentage is a similarly impressive 0.69 percent (using the protester count of 60 and the fall enrollment of 8694*). What was that about "the majority" of the people being against war in Iraq?
On the way back from lunch today one of my coworkers made the observation that people who are against something are far more likely to protest that those who support it. Those who are protesting against war would best remember that.
* TWU also has facilities (albeit small ones) in Dallas (at Parkland and Presbyterian hospitals) and Houston. They did not give the breakdown for enrollment at each facility, although Denton is their primary campus.
I guess I'd have to rate the President's performance at the press conference as a B or B-. I had hoped to hear more of a reaction to the question about "American arrogance." However, I understand that he has to be careful of his words. That's just one more reason why I would never make it as President. I don't think it would play well in the press and around the world to tell a reporter that he's an asswitted fool (or that the so-called "peace" protesters are a bunch of crunchy nutburgers).
On today's range menu we have a main serving of S&W 22s with a side of Kimber Ultra CDP II. Garnished with a heap of paper targets and served hot.
Update: No joy. The range was closed this afternoon because the padding on the backstop has deteriorated too much. They'll be replacing it tomorrow, although they don't know when the range will be open. At this rate, I guess I won't get to shoot until Friday.
We spent the time at Bass Pro looking at guns instead of shooting. I got my hands on a Ruger Single-Six (a single action .22 LR revolver with an interchangeable .22Mag cylinder). I liked the feel of it as it fit my hand nicely and it seemed to point naturally. I may have to acquire one of these little revolvers.
This is interesting. I guess I hadn't given that much thought to pricing before. But with the ability of people to price shop in ways that haven't been done before, businesses are having to become a lot smarter about their pricing strategies.
"Most retail companies still do a lot of things manually," says Steven Schwartz, senior vice president of planning and allocation at the Casual Male Retail Group, a chain of 475 clothing stores. "Our buyers and planners got reports on sales and inventory weekly," says Schwartz. "And they evaluated those reports, looking for what was selling, what to discount, and deciding the markdown. But they were going through paper 12 inches thick. We took a markdown. If it worked, great. If it didn't work, we took another markdown."Maybe this is why I could never find the pants I wanted in stock at any of their local stores (or even on their website at times). Of maybe I was just using the most popular size at the time*. The situation seems to have improved recently, though.
A couple of years ago, Schwartz began to look for a better way, and he found a half-dozen companies offering software to automate the markdown process. It works somewhat like airline-pricing software: The computers absorb several years' worth of data, look at what's in stores and how it's selling, and spit out recommendations for prices on specific clothing items. Casual Male picked ProfitLogic, a company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts that is also working with the Home Depot, JC Penney, and Old Navy. During the first year, Casual Male did a test across six departments in all of its stores. Schwartz's buyers would tell the ProfitLogic software what inventory they wanted to move, what the price was, and, most importantly, when Casual Male wanted to be sold-out ( or when the chain wanted to have a certain amount left to be sold at its outlet chain ).
ProfitLogic's system not only gave guidance on what to discount, and by how much, it also allowed Casual Male's buyers to ask their own questions, like, "What happens if we mark down 10% instead of 20%?"
The software inspired one basic change in the Casual Male markdown world: Discount less, but discount a lot sooner. "Merchants tend to get emotionally committed to what they buy," says David Boyce, ProfitLogic's vice president of marketing. "Buyers pick styles, colors. In general, they get it right, but once in a while, they don't. They always say, 'Just one more week! It will sell!' "
At Casual Male, the results were immediate. "Sell throughs" -- selling all of something -- "were much faster, much sooner," says Schwartz. The clothing was still on sale -- but not as deeply discounted as it would have been a month later in the season. Schwartz is protective about the exact improvement in profitability. But in June 2002, the software was rolled out for all items at all stores -- after Casual Male upgraded its national point-of-sale system.
Link via Slashdot.
* Yep, Casual Male is a "big and tall" outfit. But since I've been doing the Atkins Plan since September, I may be able to kiss them goodbye at some point this year. I've still got a ways to go before I finish, but the results so far are promising.
It looks like Kim du Toit's been adding gunpowder to his Wheaties today. I've been watching the sturm und drang over the libertarian question on his site as well as that of Mrs. du Toit. I think the primary problem is that even most libertarians don't know what it is. There are a bunch of different subgroups who all claim that title for themselves. To make things more fun, you also have the Libertarian Party to deal with. I think Kim's characterization of libertarianism as simply "anarcho-capitalism" is off the mark, but then they're the ones that seem to get all the attention.
Over the years I've played with a variety of forms of libertarianism. There are some things that are appealing about anarcho-capitalism, but I just don't see how it can be made to work. Heck, the market can't even restrain those damn vermin telemarketers. That was one of the things that convinced me that a completely unregulated market was going too far. But at the same time, I would like to see a lot of other regulations go away. Government is a cure that is often worse than the disease, given the law of unintended consequences. We must be careful of how we apply it and avoid using it willy-nilly for petty little things.
I think the final straw for me, though, was 9/11. I've always been a supporter of a strong national defense, although I've been somewhat wary of some of the decisions that have been made in that arena (9mm pistols, V-22 Osprey, etc). I'm in favor of any action that will make the United States safer at home, but I don't ever want to see us trying to gain an empire. All I want is to be left alone to live my life in peace.
So, I now find myself without a political home. I find almost everything the Democrats stand for repugnant to my beliefs. The Republican party has potential, but they tend to shoot themselves in the foot trying to out-socialist the Democrats (and don't get me started on their religious fundamentalist fringe). The Libertarian party lost me with their stand on the war. The Greens are a bunch of socialist nutbags (green on the outside, red on the inside).
In many ways, I think I'm a constitutionalist. I'd like to see us uphold the Constitution as the Law Of The Land. I don't want to get too deep into this, but I've often wished we could bring back a few of the founders to examine our current federal government. I'm sure they wouldn't have much use for the DEA or BATF or any of the other alphabet soup agencies that plague our country (although I suspect that they would take one look at our government and run screaming from the room). Having said that, though, I'm not interested in the Constitution Party either. They're just as bad as the others in using the government to regulate every aspect of the lives of other people.
Maybe I need to start a "Leave Me The Hell Alone" party.
Update: I'll probably take Kim up on his quest to get everyone to buy just one more gun this year, though, even if he doesn't like libertarians. :) But then, I've always had a soft spot for all those sad little guns I see at the gun show with no one to take them home. It's such a shame that so many of them don't have good homes with owners who will take care of them.
"When authorities warn you of the sinfulness of sex, there is an important lesson to be learned. Do not have sex with the authorities."
-- Matt Groening
Cox & Forkum have started their own site. It certainly looks to be off to a good start (be sure not to have any liquids in your mouth before clicking).
Link via Little Green Footballs.
Lexar will be introducing flash memory cards with 2GB and 4GB capacities. This means that you could take a tremendous number of photographs with a digital camera before having to download, even at the highest resolutions. My 2 megapixel digital camera can store approximately 400 pictures on a 256MB flash card at the highest quality and resolution. My recent experience with a film camera has definitely brought me back around to the digital camp. There is no developing cost, no waiting for the pictures to come back, and with large memory capacities you can take lots of pictures in the hopes of getting the shot that you want.
I noticed last week that Glenn Reynolds gave blood. I was reminded of it by this post over at Misha's site.
When I was in college I tried to give blood, but it was not successful. After a few minutes the blood flow stopped. I had only filled a small portion of the bag. The technician tried moving the needle, but it still wouldn't flow right. By that time I was tired of being stuck with the needle so I gave up and left. A couple of years later I had a burst appendix. During my two stays in the hospital (the first for the operation, the second for a bad post-op infection), I had a total of 14 IVs inserted. The problem was that after a short time (ranging from a few hours to a day), the IV would infiltrate and have to be moved to a different location. I suppose it's good that I'm not afraid of needles.
The lesson that I learned from all this is that my veins don't like having foreign objects inserted into them. So, as much as I'd like to help out, I won't be attempting to donate blood anytime soon. They had enough problems just getting a vial of blood for the lab tests on my last trip to the doctor (and it left a festive purple bruise on my arm for about a week).
Having returned from my little trip (just over 300 miles), I've got some road related stuff for a Sunday evening.