Thought We Were Out of Beta

While trying to publish an edit to the previous post, I got this error:

bX-y5mpya

Additional information

blogID: 6667391
uri: /post-edit.do
host: www2.blogger.com
postID: 4728350865740187879

Just thought you should know. Not sure why they gave me that information - they didn't point me directly to a form to report a problem. But I trust Google.

Someone's pager probably went off as that error number was being generated, and that thought makes me happy because it's 3:30 AM in Mountain View, and I'm not there.

DualDisc

John Mayer recently posted about the DualDisc and its failure. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's a disc with two capabilities. On one side it's a CD just like any other, but on the other side is DVD content. Just like a dual-layer DVD, but with one layer of CD content, readable from the other side of the disc. Marvelous idea in my opinion, but apparently not for a musician who is pressured to find crap to put on the DVD side. This video is an illustration of the small production John Mayer created to put on the DVD side of his DualDisc. He also says "the DualDisc was so aptly named as only two of them were sold, I thought you might like to see."

I admit that I own one of those DualDiscs.



This probably helped engineers get started on the dual-mode HD-DVD/Blu-Ray discs (not a bad idea if companies can't agree, though there really should be just one friggin' format) so we can ignore the hype of either company.

Remember That Time I Played Rugby?

I don't think I told my readers that I recently took up the sport of rugby. I started a column weeks ago about how rugby has changed my outlook on many things - I felt more confident, walked (though very sore) with a sense of pride that almost made me a bully (no one ever knew), and thought I had found a group of real gentlemen.

I never finished that column.

We had our first game today, and I can say nothing much more than that it was a disgrace. A disgrace not only to our ability to score, but a disgrace to the highly-regarded game of rugby and the people we are. When I was brought into the sport, I was told it was a gentleman's game; that there was respect for the sport and the opposing team right on the pitch, even when the referee wasn't looking. No matter what happened, we'd all get together to drink and sing songs post-match as was the tradition of rugby. It's a rewarding sport, with every step the history and presence of the traditions and rules would wrap us all in glory just for having played.

Ready for my take?

As with many sports, rugby depends heavily on teamwork. We simply didn't play as a team. One wing (one of the men on the outside) touched the ball one time. That's about as much passing as we did. I saw men on both teams get hit for no reason. The match really turned into "who's balls are bigger" and the game and traditions of rugby turned to shit. All we had to do was pass the ball to a few folks and we could have kept possession and probably scored a couple of more times.

But what do I know? Last time I was on a winning team that worked this hard, I was 9 and the sport was soccer. The principles were the same then, too.

Now I'm just going to bathe and find something better to do.

...But I Don't.

I wrote earlier about programming on this cute little Mac, but there was something I didn't realize at the time. I found that Java development was already available on this machine and I could compile and run my programs with ease. Fantastic.

But actually writing the code on the Mac has become a bit more than trivial. The only text editors I have are in AppleWorks 6, TextEdit, and vi (a command-line text editor). I can't figure out how to save a file in TextEdit to a raw text file (it only saves in RTF), it's virtually impossible to do in AppleWorks, and I'm not taking the time to write programs in vi. Looks like I can't put the Windows box in the closet yet.

I tried Eclipse, but it never tells me it won't run - it just doesn't run. Turns out it only works on 10.4. Damn it. I thought I had it all worked out.

It'll Never Happen

My good friend John wrote back in September about zombies when he was visiting Portland. Not sure what brought it up (he is a very creative fellow), but his post was funny nonetheless.

As I sit here tonight and battle another round of insomnia with milk and cookies at the kitchen table rather than my office, I'm trying to find a way to get in touch with someone loved and adored by millions. According to MySpace, John is one of my 13 friends, and I'm one of his 211,375. He is a hard person to contact due to his frequent traveling and wild popularity.

The reason I want to contact him is that I saw a book during my Christmas shopping that I thought he might be interested in. That's all. And I'm writing about it here and now because I can't sleep. I visited John's website tonight after reading that he'd stopped in San Francisco yesterday to do a special show at Macworld for the announcement of the iPhone. I thought he might write to say something about San Francisco or maybe the first performance in two weeks, but nothing except the "Tao of MySpace."

Yeah, Tao. Of MySpace.

I posted a comment on his MySpace page and thought I'd stand out somewhat with what I said. When I went back to actually see my comment (about two minutes later) I found it buried under 9 others already. It was then that I finally realized.

If You Don't Read Anything Else

I know I'm on furlough, but I got the best e-mail from someone named "Your Federal Credit Union" at info@mail.dc2cars.com and had to take a look. It got through Gmail's spam filters somehow, so it has to be legitimate, right? In a word, no. It was sent to the address I have posted in the sidebar to elicit comments (see the section labeled about me), and I have never registered anywhere using that address, nor have I given it to anyone. I've simply displayed it there at the right. The e-mail was as follows:

Dear Federal Credit Union account holder,

This is a part of our security service measures, we regularly screen activity in Federal Credit Unions (FCU) network.
We recently noticed the following issue on your account: A recent review of your account determined that we require some additional information from you in order to provide you with our secure services.

Case ID Number: FCU-065-617-349

In accordance with NCUA User Agreement, your account access will remain limited until the issue has been resolved. Unfortunately, if the access to your account remains limited for an extended period of time, it may result in further limitations or eventual account closure. We encourage you to take 3-5 minutes out of your online experience and update your personal account records as soon as possible to help avoid this. We thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. Please understand that this is a security measure intended to help protect you and your account.

Visit the link below and fill out the form on the following page to complete the verification process.

National Credit Union Administration

We apologize for any inconvenience.

Sincerely, NCUA Account Review Department

If one were to click on the link to what might appear to be the National Credit Union Administration, they would be taken to a site that looked a whole lot like this¹. Compare it to the actual NCUA Website and you might notice subtle similarities². This is a good trick to make one think he's actually at a valid website, and it actually does exactly that. The reason phishers are so successful is that apparently no one reads the news or warnings about phishing attacks and believes everything they read in e-mail, even if it's from info@mail.dc2cars.com, is quite vague, and has something to do with their personal account at a credit union. Not to mention it was supposed to be from the National Credit Union Administration, (a United States bureaucratic organization) but the link in the e-mail led to //kokoroplanet.jp/NCUA/ (a domain reserved for an individual or company within Japan) and the clicker actually ended up at //83.147.69.14/NCUA/ (a server traced to somewhere in Italy).

I think someone said one time, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." That shouldn't even be a valid statement, given the warnings we see every day and the stories we hear about stolen identities and empty bank accounts. The new saying should be "Few will be first, but no one should follow." I have posted on phishing at least two other times at this site. Microsoft and Mozilla work hard to try to warn users about these sites as soon as they're reported. ISPs and governments work together to try to shut down the server hosting the fraudulent site. All of these efforts are greatly appreciated and benefit the public, but none of it would be necessary if we'd just pay a little more attention.

I've noticed that many people who ask my advice never attentively listen to my answer or explanation, and then just shrug it off with a "hum" when I come to a point. They never realize just how important it is that they know what I am telling them, or how dangerous things can be if they're ignorant. If you think your credit's shaky with the $300K home and the new Escalade, wait until you type your Social Security number into the wrong form on the web and send it to a twenty-something in Zheleznodorozhnyy, Kaliningradskaya³.

Heed the warnings, people. I just wish I could get some good spam lists and send this letter to everyone on them.


1. If they make me take that page down, I've also printed it for you.
2. Actually, they're not similarites - all of the sidebar content and images are actually provided by the NCUA website. The phishermen just took the NCUA page as a template, inserted the form for the victim, and posted the page at their site.
3. Zheleznodorozhnyy is a real city. You won't really see it, but this points to the metropolis, pop. 2963.

Space Travel at 67 is Crazy, but This I Gotta See

Okay, check this out:

Anyone know who Stephen Hawking is? You know, the theoretical physicist who wrote "A Brief History of Time?" Yeah, him.

Are you familiar with his physical condition? At about age 22, it was discovered he has ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease. They told him he might not make it to 25. He now rolls around in an electric wheelchair and speaks with the help of a computer. He holds a prestigious position at Cambridge University as the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, a chair once filled by Isaac Newton. He was born on this day in 1942.

But it gets better: Professor Hawking intends to go into space in 2009.

Beat that.

Goodbye, and Thank You

Ando Momofuku died Friday. He will most certainly be remembered for his subtle gift to college students, Army personnel, and the poor alike. Ando created a culture with his meal, and probably never thought it would become this widespread.

I'm eating Top Ramen's Spicy Chile Chicken Flavor noodles this morning in his honor. Total cost: 26¢ and four minutes.

And don't be fooled: I'm still on furlough.

Furlough

I'm off for awhile. E-mail if you want.

Why Do I Bother?

Google Answer to Filling Jobs Is an Algorithm (New York Times)

Google is trying something new with hiring folks these days, and I began to read this article with enthusiasm, thinking a dream just might come true and I could find myself on the payroll next year with my favorite corporation. Alas, I still need to finish school even to be the janitor.

Mathematics is absolutely required for engineering at Google, and it's a subject I have long put away after going nine rounds with Calculus earlier in the decade. I feel comfortable with math but it takes a good bit of time and an inordinate amount of self-discipline to operate at that higher level.

Google has created a survey that its candidates will begin taking this month, and it predicts it might double its workforce this year (which is 10,000) and that means about 200 hires per week. They had to find some quantitative method, didn't they? I probably would, too. With my current level of education and experience I still don't qualify even for systems administration. So...

If given the chance I would propose to Google that they buy me. That's right, me. They can put me through the rest of school and I will work for them to pay it off. If Google gives every employee so much to come and stay, why can't that be education? They're building an army and they seem to have the money to accommodate me (not to mention a little pull with the folks at Stanford), the only question is how do I ask this? Who do I e-mail, or where do I show up to yell "I want to finish school so I can work for Google!"

If I could ask the right person and they can answer me objectively as to why it's not a good idea, I'll quit. But until then, while the United States Army is still offering to pay off student loans to any flunkie who went to college, it's a good idea for Google to front me some education. Hell, I'd even settle for Berkeley. Everyone says they're starving for people, but I just don't see it yet. The Department of Family and Children Services will pay for a Graduate degree while the social worker goes to school while employed, and some school districts will pay for education so long as the future educator signs a contract to teach in that district for a period of time. I believe I have a case.

Java and the Mac

In light of the quickly approaching first day of Spring semester, I thought I should check this Mac and see if I'll have any problems programming in Java with the little cutie. I had already downloaded Eclipse and installed it though I never have learned how to build a project. Today, for some reason, it wouldn't even start. I just wanted to write simple program source files and compile them for class, so I went straight to java.sun.com and looked for the SDK that they surely made for the Mac - and didn't find it. Next step: Google.

The first thing the idiot savant told me was that I didn't need an SDK or to download the runtime environment. I found a developer's site at Apple that said, "Mac OS X is the only mass-market operating system that comes complete with a fully configured and ready-to-use Java Development Kit." I think that's great. I even tried it. I took a source file I wrote last semester and issued the same commands to compile and build the program, then ran it. Flawless. If I could find a text editor I liked, this thing would be really groovy.

It's Official.

It turns out that I had good reason to think that MySpace is crap.

It is.

If you look at the pages built by anyone for free, such as the sites built at angelfire (now a part of Lycos) or geocities (now part of Yahoo!), you can see what happens when bad design and a plethora of built-in advertising come together. And yes, I was even part of angelfire at one time, before I started this online enterprise of mine. I just needed somewhere to post my pages I built in my web publishing class, but it was appropriate at angelfire because I had nothing meaningful to say.

So I am proud to announce that the #1 Worst website, according to PC World, is MySpace.

From the article:

Yes, we know. With more than 90 million users, MySpace is now more popular than Elvis, "American Idol," and ice cream. But the Web's most visited destination is also its most poorly designed and counterproductive.

Actually, there are over 144 million registered accounts now, but it's my guess that most of them are managed by robots or people who have different motives other than social networking or music appreciation. You see, MySpace originally came about to promote independent musicians, and spread to every teenager's room in addition. It is a powerful tool for bands (I have a friend in Albuquerque who has gotten some attention with his group) but pretty much stinks for all other purposes. Now it is full of illiterate junkies who apply the worst of templates to their site and type in an awful new language to each other. Then there's the spread of spyware, the horribly obtrusive advertising, slow page loads, and the dangers of online child predators if nothing else has stopped you from going there. I plead with you: stop the madness.

So continue your web surfing, and do it safely around MySpace. It's really not worth it, and my opinion is now supported by a major media outlet.

No One's Reading Anyway

It's the new year and I don't have anything to declare. We didn't party last night and we actually missed midnight - we were in the middle of a movie about mathematicians.

I didn't know that James Brown died on Christmas morning until two days ago. Funny how the death of a former president overshadows the passing of a musical icon. I am willing to bet a large wager that more people in the United States are more familiar with the name James Brown and who he was than they are with Gerald Ford and what he did. I have no real complaint, though. More people should be familiar with US history and how our country got where it is; maybe then we'd all vote and have a better government. I'm sure that I just dipped into something I don't want to discuss, especially since I started this post out of pure boredom, so I'll let your comments lead the way.