MS Word: Hidden Text

This is a short article on using the hidden text feature of Microsoft Word. I will be using Word 2003 for my examples. Now, everyone (we hope) knows that one can just open Word and begin typing to create a document. Only that much is given.

My secretary, Amber¹, has typed a letter to Jim Morrison (the new one) who wants to build a studio near the Okefenokee Swamp in South Georgia². She created two versions: one with the text I directed, and one with a long paragraph in the middle telling Mr. Morrison how glad the Southerners are that he has chosen South Georgia as his recording home. Amber wrote it hoping I would choose her version to send the music star. She only had to type one document:


She printed that one, and selected the paragraph that she knew was inevitably bound for deletion:



With that text selected, she simply used the keyboard combination Ctrl+Shift+H and the text was hidden:



Amber printed that one as well, and submitted them to me for review. This saved her quite a bit of time as she only had to type one document.

To show the hidden text, Amber uses the Show/Hide button on the standard toolbar. If that button is not shown, it means that it hasn't been used in a while and has been hidden to show the other, more commonly used buttons. At the right end of the toolbar, there's a symbol to show these hidden buttons:



Anyway, that button will toggle showing the hidden characters. Not only does it show the hidden text, but all non-printing characters such as spaces, tabs, and newlines. This is particularly useful in editing documents and aligning text with margins and such:



I hope you have found this tutorial somewhat entertaining and educational. Since I can't regurgitate the latest news, I'll resort to thinking up small bits like this from time to time.

<sub>1. I neither have a secretary, nor do I know anyone named Amber.
2. I made this all up.</sub>

Web Science

Techdirt reported the other day about The Guardian taking Tim Berners-Lee's quotes from an interview out of context to make something sound more interesting for its readers. I found a NYTimes article that was actually more believable. That one talked also about a field of study that interests me and I had no idea it existed or was emerging. From the article:

Web science is related to another emerging interdisciplinary field called services science. This is the study of how to use computing, collaborative networks and knowledge in disciplines ranging from economics to anthropology to lift productivity and develop new products in the services sector, which represents about three-fourths of the United States economy. Services science research is being supported by technology companies like I.B.M., Accenture and Hewlett-Packard, and by the National Science Foundation.

I would like to know more about this "services science." It sounds a bit like what I already do.

Oh, and if you take the words from the inventor of the World Wide Web, twist them, and publish it on your website, expect to hear from him on that same medium.

Good Comedy is Scarce

I read this joke today at Comedy Central, and it's the best clean one I've heard in years:

Turtles and Picnics and a Minor Tragedy

Three turtles, Joe, Steve, and Poncho, decide to go on a picnic. Joe packs the picnic basket with cookies, bottled sodas, and sandwiches. The trouble is, the picnic site is 10 miles away, so the turtles take 10 whole days to get there.

By the time they do arrive, everyone's whipped and hungry. Joe takes the stuff out of the basket, one by one. He takes out the sodas and realizes that they forgot to bring a bottle opener. Joe & Steve beg Poncho to turn back home and retrieve it, but Poncho flatly refuses, knowing that they'll eat everything by the time he gets back.

Somehow, after about two hours, the turtles manage to convince Poncho to go, swearing on their great-grand turtles' graves that they won't touch the food. So, Poncho sets off down the road, slow and steady.

Twenty days pass, but no Poncho. Joe and Steve are hungry and puzzled, but a promise is a promise. Another day passes, and still no Poncho, but a promise is a promise. After three more days pass without Poncho in sight, Steve starts getting restless. "I NEED FOOD!" he says with a hint of dementia in his voice.

"NO!" Joe retorts. "We promised."

Five more days pass. Joe realizes that Poncho probably skipped out to the Burger King down the road, so the two turtles weakly lift the lid, get a sandwich, and open their mouths to eat. But then, right at that instant, Poncho pops out behind a rock.

"Just for that, I'm not going."

Isn't that fantastic? What one expects sometimes is completely different.

Breakin' Out

Those boxes publishers stick in long magazine articles with catchy sentences to make you read it,

And then my leg fell off!

I've heard, are called "breakouts." Those boxes are easy to display with CSS, rather than creating an image with the text in it. It's really only a div element that has its own margins, padding, background, text, and font properties. It can float right or left or take up the whole column (for those articles with thin columns).

In your CSS document, create an entry something like the following:

#breakout_left{
  width:200px;
  text-align:left;
  font-size:14pt;
  font-weight:bold;
  line-height:1em;
  background:#cccccc;
  float:left;
  margin-right:20px;
  margin-top:20px;
  margin-bottom:20px;
  padding: 10px 10px 10px 10px;
}

This defines the div element as a section that will expand vertically (down) and have the properties you give it. If you don't like the background color, change it. If the font is too big, just make it smaller. Anything can be adjusted in the breakout this way; if one were just to create an image to display, there would not be nearly this much flexibility. With Blogger, you must use the "Edit HTML" mode:

Just create a div element such as the following:

<div id="breakout_left">Some text in the breakout!</div>

and it will follow the styles set in your style sheet. For those of you who know CSS, this is a simple concept. I don't claim to know CSS (I get very tired at browser compatibility) but when I was approached with this "breakout" task I knew just what to do. I hate images. Google doesn't index the

If the font is too big, just make it smaller.

text inside an image (yet). It's better to have the site more dynamic anyway, and accessible to programatic alteration.

If we changed this site to include DHTML or even AJAX later, it would be easier to change these breakouts with easy commands rather than manual manipulation. This is the way of the web. Tutorials on CSS are available here, here, and here. More available through Google.

Just Read This a Minute Ago

It's no big secret that my favorite musical artist is John Mayer, and I don't mean to get off my tech-babbling here, but John's blog is a place I visit at least once a week and his writing never ceases to inspire me to think:

CHANGE

I've been thinking about something lately.

Imagine this:

You're on an airplane, sleeping with your head against the window, your heart set on being home this time three hours from now. All of a sudden, something goes very wrong. The plane stops moving across the air and instead starts falling through it. The lights are flickering and the movie is skipping. The plane dips hundreds of feet in seconds, and the yellow cups fall from the ceiling. They're a brighter shade of yellow than you remember, because unlike the demonstration, these cups have never been handled before. "Flight attendants take your seats now", you hear, the pilot's voice trembling over a cacophony of alert tones. You get that smell in the bridge of your nose like you've just been hit with a football. That's what the fear smells like. The plane is going down.

Four more drastic drops in under a minute. People are crying. For all the folklore about how your life flashes before your eyes, you're remarkably fixed on one vision - your parents. They're sleeping at this very moment, in a bedroom so quiet they can hear the clock in the kitchen. And you can see them, clear as can be. You wish you could see a playground or a first kiss, but all you can see is your parents sleeping. Huh. Well, that's that.

Several long minutes go by. Then, all at once, the lights come back on and the plane somehow rights itself. Some people cheer, but most people cry harder. The plane lands about an hour later, and as soon as you feel that touch down - hell, even when you were within 50 feet of the ground and could still technically survive a fall - you realize that however you brokered the deal between you and God worked; you've just been granted life in overtime.

Here's the question: what do you change? Whom do you call that you haven't spoken to in years? Whom do you realize has been toxic to your heart and drop with surprising ease? What trips do you cancel, and what trips do you book? What can't you be bothered with anymore? What's the new you like?


Think about that, and then ask one more question. Why not just change it all right now?

(Working on it...)

POSTED BY JOHN MAYER AT 04:48 AM FROM SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA

This will stay here until I get a nasty letter from John or his people regarding copyright issues. The link to his post is here. I take no credit in writing that and feel that my own readers may enjoy it.

Even though he's quite a wealthy man, he still is pretty damn down-to-earth. He's an exceptionally talented person and still gives credit where credit is due (and does so publicly). That is admirable even in the smallest and most critical of eyes.

Pulling the Shades

I was reading a security blog today and came across an issue that I have always been on one side of until now. Now (I think) I get Microsoft's manner of operating. It's an issue about access to the Windows kernel (the core of the operating system) and how Microsoft doesn't want to let anyone see it, not even McAfee or Symantec to help protect it. I can somewhat agree with Microsoft now. That post actually had a point. It's just that Microsoft never presented it that way because it would make them look like less of a team player. Note to vendors: they never really cared anyway.

I don't have all the technical or legal expertise to go into this, but one trivial thought helped everything make sense: if the kernel is locked down, why would you need security programs to get inside it to protect it from malware when the malware has become less of a problem by locking down the kernel? Now I'm confused - did that make sense? Is that a derivative of a Catch-22?

If that theory holds true, Windows could become as seemingly secure as the Mac OS just by becoming proprietary (so to speak). It's all relative, though.

I must say, however, that I hate Vista so far, and it has a lot to do with HP.

Perfect Situation Required

Network World reported yesterday that a new Windows XP attack has been proven to disable Windows Firewall. More details are here. Very interesting - how do they do that? Isn't Windows Firewall fairly robust, just as powerful as Symantec's and McAfee's software firewalls?
Actually it pretty much is, especially since you don't have to pay for it. Now let me get a show of hands:

1. How many of you know what ICS is as it relates to Microsoft Windows?

2. How many of you even knew that Windows could share its Internet connection with other computers directly?

3. How many of you actually use Internet Connection Sharing in your home or small office?

The vulnerability is in Internet Connection Sharing, wherein a bad packet sent to the target can "trip-up" ICS (svchost.exe) which is tied to Windows Firewall. When svchost.exe is halted, the firewall goes down. I expect to hear about an update in the near future from Microsoft correcting this issue.

This attack requires the attacker to be on the same network with the target machine. It also requires that the computer under attack have ICS enabled, not have any other software firewall running, and it is not behind a NAT router. If this is you, please call me for a consultation immediately and have your checkbook at the ready.

My point is that almost no one is vulnerable to this new attack that brings down Windows firewall, and those who are indeed vulnerable probably don't have any information on their system worth stealing. Most computer-savvy users are usually behind a router of some sort, especially if they use a wireless router at home. As cheap as they are, I might just give a few away at my debut Internet security course. No one should be without at least some sort of security hardware these days.

Yes, There Were Issues

The last post (October 30) was actually written on the 28th. I just couldn't publish it. I kept getting "There were errors," and the errors varied from an unresolvable host (benrehberg.com) to session timeouts while talking to my servers.

There is a special way to handle yourself at these times: you wait. There is nothing else you can do, so you just save that text and try again later - usually the next day everything is fine.

We had problems all week. For a couple of days I couldn't publish.

Last night, though, everything seemed even faster than before, and publishing went very well (you may have noticed). Above my Gmail list this morning I saw a headline titled "About those Blogger Outages..." and I knew there had to be trouble. I clicked and read. Turns out that Blogger isn't fully Google-ized yet, but when they get there we Blogger users can all enjoy the same flawless operation we experience nearly everywhere else on Google. I can't wait.

Loving It

I am really digging Firefox 2.0. The power in South Georgia blinks at least once per week, at which point my computer shuts down without my knowledge. I hate that. I always have at least five programs running and five tabs open in Firefox, and I can't ever remember what the hell I was looking at when the power turned off.

But when I got up this morning, I reset the clock on the microwave, prepared a cup of coffee, and stormed into my office. I'd been working on a website and had all the needed files open as I was crafting my latest (which, by the way, is not working in IE), and now there was silence. No computer fans running; just my two monitors sitting there with orange lights, as if to tell me it wasn't their fault. I shrugged my shoulders and pressed the power button on my PC.

Windows XP Pro booted fine, just like it always does. Network drives mounted, Folding@Home started to run, the FTP server started, and the system settled in. I started Firefox to check Gmail - this is what I always do - but a box appeared:



I couldn't believe it! I never would have thought to have a browser automatically save the open tabs for this purpose! I simply clicked "Restore Session" and the browser opened up with exactly what I had open last night when I went to bed. I must say that this is wonderful. I have a home page with many useful links on it (accessible here), but there are many sites I was visiting at the time which I don't believe I would have found again.

I highly recommend Firefox for anyone.

One Benefit of Ignoring Spell Check

Yes, folks, that's right. I have found one benefit of a person ignoring spell check. Take the following spam message:

Subject: Enquiry

It gives me a great deal of pleasure to write you this mail and even when it might come to you as a surprise.I hope you find it of interest.

Let me first introduce myself. My name is Magnus Denis and I am a staff of an Auditing and Risk Management Firm, here in Spain, I should like to usethis means to ask your assistance in moving some fund over to your country.I have, in the course of my duties come in contact with a good amount of money that have been inactive for some years now and careful investigation proved the original depositor of the fund had died some years back and all attempts to reach the supposed beneficiary of the deposit were fruitless and before it is forfeited to the state, I decided to move it.

After legal consultation, I have concretized modalities for a secured way that would guarantee a perfect transaction. But be most assured that for your help and partnership you will get a good percentage of the total sum. It is important to let you know that fifty percent of the rest will be invested over there under your anagement. For a negotiable period of time and we will open a fruitful dialog to that effect.

I look forward to our working closely in practically seeing this transaction come to a perfect and successful end. For effective communication, please kindly include in your reply, your complete Names, Address, Occupation, Age and most especially your contact number and I will contact you as soon as I get your reply.

I look forward to hearing from you and I express my gratitude for your patience.

Kindly reply to:magnus_denis@k.ro

Magnus Denis

Right off the bat we know it's spam, simply because someone with this much money would absolutely have to know how to spell "inquiry," or at least be doubtful about its spelling. This is a scam related to another, much older scam that had something to do with a fellow in Nigeria. If you get this message in your e-mail, please delete it without getting greedy and losing your retirement.

Busy Day

No questions, please - this is what I do.

Reverse Broadband

I got curious today about the upload/download speed here at the office because I heard that the new Internet Security Routers (ISR) were slowing down traffic at all of the sites.



Too bad I didn't run a speed test before they installed it today. This is interesting, though. I have never seen the upload speed at ten times the download speed.

There is really no way to be accurate here, though. We have around 100-120 machines on the network, and probably several users streaming audio from some website. We also have many computers using a terminal emulator connected to a mainframe in Atlanta, querying data constantly.

But I applaud the I.T. folks for finally going to private addressing. Up until last month, every computer in every office that was connected to the network had a publicly-routable IP address. Very dangerous if you ask me. We're busting at the seams with sensitive data; there is a constant high probability that we could have a very similar incident the VA had earlier this year, or a network break-in like NASA had several years ago.

Of course, everyone is subject to the vulnerabilities of social engineering. I encourage everyone to read the interesting (if not also true) stories in Kevin Mitnick's The Art of Deception: Controlling the Human Element of Security. I wonder if our Information Security Manager has read it.

Firefox 2.0 Released Tomorrow

An exciting day tomorrow as Mozilla announces Firefox 2.0. Just a week after the release of IE7, Firefox's latest hits the streets and offers much the same protection as Microsoft's browser. I highly recommend Mozilla products because they work and they're free.

If you're a PocketPC user, try Minimo, a Mozilla browser for the Windows Mobile platform.

If you're on the go, try Mobile Firefox, a browser designed to run directly from a flash drive and save all your history and temporary files to that same removable disk, enhancing your privacy on the road. That one's also handy for browsing on a friend's laptop or home computer for a few minutes to check on the daily porn.

Then, for a real challenge, find a version of IE that you can carry in your pocket.

If you're reading this on or after October 24, 2006, get Firefox 2.0 here.

Richard Stallman and GPLv3

I'd heard of Richard Stallman before, but never really looked into it. Seems that he's stirring up some really good stew lately.

For those of you who don't know, Stallman is the founder of the Free Software Foundation (FSF). This group oversees the General Public License under which most free software is distributed. If you need to know more about Dick, consult Wikipedia.

A little trivia: the TiVo runs Linux. The source code to the TiVo software, in accordance with the GPL, is available free of charge, but TiVo says it's illegal to alter the code and then run it on their hardware. Perfectly fine. The license only covers the software. Stallman's GPL, version 3, suggests that anyone should be able to do anything they want with the TiVo, and other devices which depend on Linux and other open-source code. Therein lies the problem. If the GPL makes the hardware basically open-source, who's gonna buy another TiVo when the kid down the street can build you one in 30 minutes out of spare parts?

This would drive TiVo and the others to move to a closed-source structure, slamming the door in nerds' faces. It will also cost many companies a lot of money, namely Red Hat, TiVo, and Novell. You might ask: “Why do you care?”

I care because, well, I don't know. This just struck me as a bit weird. Daniel Lyons in this Forbes article was pretty hard on Stallman, making several references to radical behavior and likening the FSF to jihadists. I think Lyons and Stallman are having issues, though. Who knows? The public may not see a thing. It just may be slightly more expensive or a bit longer wait to get Grandma using Linux. That's what bites.

Microsoft Streets & Trips

I got the very latest version of Microsoft Streets & Trips yesterday and installed it. Everything went fine and it doesn't look too much different from S&T 2006; we just assume that everything is more up-to-date. There were no major updates; still no voice interaction.

I went to put the box on the shelf next to the others when I happened to notice the points of interest (and the number of them) listed on the box. I made the comparison. So I decided to use Google Documents & Spreadsheets to collaborate with my colleague and compare the difference between the versions. From the 2005 to 2007 versions, there are 88,998 fewer restaurants listed. I think that is significant in some way. It may just be more accurate (that would be significantly better), or it could just be that places have closed or no one's interested in listing themselves with whatever service Microsoft uses to get them into the program (which would be - you guessed it - significantly worse).

So here's a link to the spreadsheet (publicly viewable). At the time of writing we didn't have the data in for the 2006 version, but my colleague is probably looking for the box.

And yes, I realize that this post has a very limited audience.

You Get a LInE, I'll 6et a PoLe, We'll Go D0wn to the Phishin' Hol3

I was taking a look at my spam this evening when I noticed a mail from Bank of America. Hmmm... I thought. What possibly could make Gmail think that this was spam?

The first line gave it away:

Your Online Banking is Blocked

---

We recently reviewed your account, and suspect that your Bank of America account may have been accessed by an unauthorized third party. Protecting the security of your account is our primary concern. Therefore, as a preventative measure, we have temporarily limited access to sensitive account features.

To restore your account access, we need you to confirm your identity, to do so we need you to follow the link below and proceed to confirm your information:

http://sitekey.bankofamerica.com.signon.do.onlinesecureserver.us

Tank you for your patience as we work together to protect your account.

Sincerely,
Bank of America Customer Service

*Important*
Please update your records on or before 48 hours, a failure to update your records will result in a temporal hold on your funds.

---

Bank of America, N.A. Member FDIC. Equal Housing Lender
© 2006 Bank of America Corporation. All rights reserved.

These people are very stupid, and yet I'm sure that there were some people today who were dumb enough to click on that link and enter their account information. Two things:

Bank of America (or any banking institution) no longer puts direct links to the signon page in their e-mails to customers, or anyone. They all tell you to go to the site and sign in, manual-like.

Professional correspondence from a company that does billions of dollars worth of business will not replace the word "temporary" with "temporal," or say "Tank you for your patience...."

Okay, three things. I just noticed that it was not even sent to the e-mail address I have on file with the bank.

Please be careful with e-mail messages. If you have any sort of question about a peice of correspondence telling you that there's trouble with your account and your identity needs to be verified, just pick up the phone or go to the bank yourself. Those are the only ways to be sure.

Sweep the leg, people.

How to do the signature thingy:

I use the Blogger engine for publishing. That interface has a "template" feature where I can put in crap that shows up in every post without me having to explicitly place it there. So I decided to put my little signature at the bottom of every post.

That signature is only a .jpg image I created with my tablet PC and Windows Journal. I just wrote my name, copied the handwriting as an image, and saved it. It now sits on my web server and every blog post simply calls that image with the <img> tag.

You don't have to have a tablet or a digitizer. I did a signature for e-mails when I used Outlook at my last job. I signed my name on a peice of super-bright paper and scanned it in. Easy as pie.

Just get the image and put it at the bottom of every post. The only problem you'll have is matching the background at your blog.

He's a Star Now

How much did he get paid for this?

The $53 Camera is Fantastic

Walking the Dog

Oct 8, 2006 - 42 Photos

We went for a walk today and I made sure to take the camera along. It was a nice cool day and we all enjoyed ourselves for the majority of it.

Ffocee

Anika tries her best to say the word "coffee," but it just won't come out right. The result is hilarious, but can prove dangerous come Monday morning at daycare.

Goodbye

My grandmother died last night. She was 86. Lovely woman she was; raising 12 children on $2 a day makes a very patient person.

Now comes the time to make preparations for three generations to gather and say their goodbyes. No doubt the place will be filled with old children concerned, young children oblivious, and everyone else in between. Grandma no longer has worries about another stroke, nor is she concerned about the unsteady hand of those with Parkinson's. She lived a full life and devoted much of it to her children and grandchildren. She had a wonderful sense of humor all the way through and will certainly surface time and time again in many joyful conversations for the rest of many lives. She will be missed.

Mission Impossible

Hi, and welcome to benrehberg.com. I have had this Internet presence for about three years now, and am enjoying having my own name out there.

I got this domain for one real reason - at the time I was changing ISPs pretty often, and had to change my e-mail address at the same time. I wanted one mailbox, no matter where I was or who my provider should be. benrehberg.com was the solution. I had my own name and e-mail: ben@benrehberg.com. Then I screwed up.

I was going to see what the "Free iPod" was all about, and what I had to do to get it. I used my own e-mail address that day. Two years later, that address gets about 80 spam e-mails every 24 hours.

So now I'm on a mission to clear that address, and we'll see how we do. I am going to "unsubscribe" from every spam message I get, and we'll see how that works.

Birthday Cake

I was surprised when I was asked for identification this morning when purchasing tobacco. When they saw that today is my birthday, they gave me a treat.



See? Not every convenience store owner not born in this country is bad. You've just got to know how to talk to people. And you've also got to be me.

Happy Birthday, Avril.

That's right. Today is Avril Lavigne's birthday. Also born today were Samuel Adams, Thomas Nast, Cheryl Tiegs, Meat Loaf, Gwyneth Paltrow, Google, and I.

As of this post time, I am 28 years old. In the word of Richard Nixon:

"Shit."

New Idea I Like

I'm not an operating system programmer, but I'm willing to bet that there is a lot of work being done to make Windows Vista more secure. Microsoft has said fairly often that it listens to its customers and gives them what they want. Given their market share in the desktop operating system world, their strategy seems to be working.

I've found another company that listens to its customers and responds in a fashionable manner: Holiday Inn. Namely, the Holiday Inn Express chain they've got going. The shower heads are great. The rooms are usually quiet, clean, and inviting, and they've pushed the envelope even further as they have now gotten rid of the bedspread.

What did we all do with that thing anyway? If I didn't throw it on the floor when I arrived, it certainly worked its own way off the bed before morning. And usefulness - well, what good is an itchy, 20-year-old blanket that doesn't keep anyone warm? My wife says they never get washed, either. This change is good in many ways. I'd love to get into that, but I've got some tests to run (note the time of this post).

Learning RSS and CSS for Little Gain

I've been hired to create a website for a local writer who wants to do a podcast. He is using the university's equipment to create his audio program, and they let him because it's not-for-profit. He eventually wants to take it and go a bit commercial and try to make some money.

So here's the thing. I helped him get his domain name and hosting account. Showed him what it's all about. That's what I do - I'm a consultant. I built a simple front page for the site (he said his main content would be the podcast) and I thought I was done.

Now my phone rings nearly every day so he can tell me that he's not pleased with the layout and the level of professionalism that the site has, and "...could it be more like the BBC site?"

Well, yeah, if you were paying me $80K to do it. But this is nonprofit. And you're paying a student a pennance. A student, by the way, who works full-time and squeezes in his classes among the hundreds of miles driven every week, his family, and the rest of his life. Calm down, sir, or find someone else. I'm not a starving student, and you haven't recorded a single word yet.

Nothing Beats the End of a Good Day

Washing the Car with Daddy

Sep 25, 2006 - 30 Photos

Sooooo Ready for it

I am very anxious for my schooling to be done, or to quit my job (one has to go soon). Autumn is coming and I would love to do more outside - the weather yesterday was wonderful, that is, at least when I went to check the mail. It could have been raining the rest of the time, but it was very nice with a cool breeze when I went out.

I just read some news briefs from a paper in Everett, Washington, and wondered how the weather was up there. Is it nice? Are the people nice, and are they gearing up for the holidays already? I'd love to be doing more of the things I enjoy rather than operating with the feeling that everything I do is absolutely necessary. This blog just might be the only thing that isn't.

Privacy Expectations

This is an article I wrote for my Political Science class. It was titled 9/11: Five Years Later (wouldn't have been my choice).

My expectation of privacy from the government since 9/11 has not changed much since before that date. On the morning of September 11, 2001, I took a physical fitness test. It was to be the last one I would take in the U.S. Army. After four years of service, I was looking forward to getting out and going to college. At about the time the first plane hit the North Tower (8:46 a.m. EST), I was probably performing the sit-up portion of my test, after which was the 2-mile run. When we all got back to the office, the television was on and it didn't turn off for at least the next four months. We watched the towers fall, Enron collapse, and the bombings begin. I spent days upon days in the office up until I got out, and I had no privacy in the Army; I don't expect any now. Personally, I don't have anything to hide and if the government needs to compromise the secrecy of my conversation to prevent further attacks, so be it.

Same goes for my Internet traffic. Sure, I download a few songs here and there illegally, and they might know that. But my peer-to-peer file sharing does not compromise national security. It could, in ways, but my use is very limited and I keep a good watch over my PC due to my occupation. It actually could be a bit legal for the government to collect information about my phone calls and Internet traffic, according to the Supreme Court decision in Bartnicki v. Vopper. The Supreme Court actually upheld the First Amendment protection, but a reporter mentioned that the conversations recorded were of public concern:

Because of this suit’s procedural posture, the Court accepts that the interception was unlawful and that respondents had reason to know that. Accordingly, the disclosures violated the statutes. In answering the remaining question whether the statutes’ application in such circumstances violates the First Amendment, the Court accepts respondents’ submissions that they played no part in the illegal interception, that their access to the information was obtained lawfully, and that the conversations dealt with a matter of public concern. Pp. 9—10. (Cornell Law School)

Matters of public concern could eventually take higher precedence than the First Amendment. As long as the listeners-in don't join the conversation, I couldn't care less. A machine probably wouldn't pick up on anything I have to say on the telephone anyway, especially since I am such a poor businessman that there's nothing critical I discuss to begin with.

Wow – I don' t have much more to say. This isn't an argument for me; I don' t care whether “Big Brother” listens to my conversations. I believe that my privacy should be protected from other people (neighbors, business competitors) and will stand up for that. But when the American government wants to tap the phone, inspect every packet that leaves my cable modem, and take a look in the house once per month to make sure we're not staging Jihad, it's okay with me.

However, if they use this voluntary breach of my privacy for other reasons, I do have a problem. Playing the 9/11 card in Iraq may have worked, but I have my limits. If agents visit my house looking for terrorists and ask where I got the money for the $7,000 in computer equipment when I only have $24,000 in annual taxable income (“Come with me, sir.”), there will be issues.

In all, I expect my privacy to be respected as I will respect the values and safety of the United States and its citizens/occupants. There will inevitably come another time in which America will think back to this level of privacy and will want to have not been so secretive to protect their personal image. Anyone's neighbor could be plotting to kill a vast number of people. One of the 9/11 hijackers lived in Georgia for a little bit.

I encourage Americans to give up a little bit of privacy. Swallow your pride, because your neighbor has the same rights – and it's very possible he one day could be on a plane yelling in another language as everyone speeds toward Earth...

References
The quote about Bartnicki v. Vopper came from Cornell Law School. It was in the syllabus of the case decision, available here. Some points were also taken from the Wikipedia article on Privacy, found there.

Did you know?

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

Wierdest thing on Wikipedia yet.

Consider Me Warned

"We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action."

- Frank Tibolt

Stop This Train

This certainly has been an interesting day, though I might not get it all in because my mind is not free like some. I wish I could just let go and blog, but something's missing.

Anyway, while the coffee maker was doing its thing and I was in the shower this morning, my wonderful machine was retrieving the latest John Mayer album, Continuum. It started in the car this morning on my 1.5-hour-long-trip with the single ("Wating on the World to Change"), and I was delighted with the rest of it (I cried toward the end of "Stop this Train.")

When I finished my work up north, I started back to the office. I stopped in Tifton at the mall to pick up the actual CD and a copy of the latest Rolling Stone. I read somewhere there was an interview with John in it. The following is my story:

[Ben walks into Sam Goody and is greeted by the idiot]

Idiot: "Can I help you, sweetie?"
Ben: "Do you have a copy of Rolling Stone?"
Idiot: "Is it something new, or has it been around a while?"
Ben: "It's a magazine."

She led me to the back of the store to where the rack was, and couldn't find it. I picked it up from under her nose. "I got it. Thanks. I also need a copy of Continuum."

For a magazine that's been in publication for 39 years, it somehow has escaped the people down here. This is the place where I live. Please stop this train.

I should be posting a review of Continuum later in the week. I have heard it about five times, but I haven't looked at the cover insert yet.

Then Again...

I was reading John's blog this evening and the thought came to me that he has the best and worst of the world right now. His album, Continuum, will be released in two days. That's not all too bad until one thinks about his personal position. He's traveling around right now (Chicago at present) and he's probably busy as a person could be. Not much time to think. This is the first studio album with just his name on it in three years (Heavier Things was released September 9, 2003). He's got to be anxious, but doesn't have time to be.

There have been times that I wish I was John Mayer, but I think I've changed my mind. I definitely don't want to be where I am right now, but I'm sure I could find a quieter place than his brain at the moment.

El Extremo Para J.J.

Stories came out yesterday about John dumping Jessica, and I just couldn't disagree more. They say "it only lasted a week" and that Jessica's father was all proud of the couple.

Reason this is bullshit #1: John's on tour and Jessica is busy with whatever it is she does. If they did get together it would never be serious.

Reason this is bullshit #2: They both denied an actual relationship. Everything that was said came out of someone else's piehole.

If he likes her and she likes him, who cares? As long as it doesn't interrupt John's career or his music production, I'm fine with whatever he chooses to do.

Yet I still sit here after writing this wondering why I care so much about hyped-up crap pertaining to people I don't even know.

As if Anyone Cares what I Think

Immigration Reform is a hot topic these days. That's probably why my political science class is discussing it tomorrow.

The Problem: It is perceived by some that there are too many people immigrating to the United States every year. According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform, that number is about 1.1 million, and they project that the U.S. population will be around 420 million by 2050, largely due to the incoming people and the children they have when they get here. There are a lot of different impacts this influx has on our society - economic, educational, environmental, etc. Even city planners are having trouble with housing people and law enforcement is losing ground.

Building an increased number of houses on farmland and protected wetlands to accomodate more people is posing an environmental problem. Reducing the amount of farmland presents an obvious issue - more people and less food. FAIR seems to think that the high level of immigration is causing more crime, since a lot of immigrants are low-skilled and live in poverty (makes one wonder why they left home), and poverty doesn't exactly produce a high ratio of productive citizens. Schools are becoming crowded (hell, my high school was crowded in the 1990's, but that was due to a lack of concern, not immigration) and reducing the effectiveness of the primary and secondary education the U.S. provides. Economic impacts are readily seen - the people receiving financial assistance from the states, the low-skill jobs are all (well, not all) being taken by immigrants who will work for much less (the people who built my house are certainly low-skilled.)

The Solution: I have not a solution. I'm not a policical scientist or an immigration expert. I'm a technologist who doesn't watch TV (not going to pay a cable company to watch commercials, sorry) or read the newspaper (same concept). All I am interested in every day are new gadgets and software programs that help people do things.

However, G.W. Bush and his people evidently have a plan. This in no way implies that I like George W. Bush. That said, the White House’s Comprehensive Immigration Reform aims to solve many of these problems. 6000 National Guard troops have been sent to the Southern border States to provide assistance to the Border Patrol. This seems to have helped a great deal with the resistance of illegal immigration and drug trafficking across the Mexican border. They have also expanded holding facilities to accommodate more captives and expedited the deportation process. I guess I’m in favor of these measures, on a grand scale anyway.

Bush has also asked Congress to come up with a resolution to the current issues inside the U.S., like illegal workers, expired visas, etc. He even wants to start English language programs (I assume for legal immigrants).

I would probably recommend, as the global leader, that the potential illegal immigrants get help where they are; get them something to help make their lives better so they don’t feel the need to cross over and join the crowding. I think if the influx of people to the United States without an increase in productivity does not cease, we will soon find that this country is not as glamorous as it once seemed to the outside. Tourism would decline. Companies would start to move their main business lines outside the country and the economy would fail. The United States could eventually become what I have just invented a phrase for: “Social Sahara,” a country in which everyone is so poor and dried up that no one wants to visit. Then Britain would rule again. Did my imagination just cut loose or what?

I’m not one to praise the U.S. for its selfish attitude (what’s-mine-is-mine kind of thing; close the blinds to the rest of the world), but there has to be a limit on immigration before this country becomes the one those people left. Australia has an interesting acceptance program and it seems to work. I read a bit about it during the time the Olympic games were at Sydney (whenever that was) and wanted to try to get in. I think I have a better chance at getting in to Google just because of the process involved. Not recommended for a country the size of the United States, but effective nonetheless.

Cool Tool

During the conversion of posts from my bBlog blog to this one, I had to convert a UNIX timestamp to an actual, readable date. I Googled a bit and found this one, and it was quite useful I'm posting it here for my readers, but mainly so I can find it again later. It converts both ways.

I Need Plumber's Putty for This?

The kitchen sink has been leaking since we moved in (remember that this is a brand-new house) and I finally got sick of it this weekend.

I went to find out what was wrong and discovered that the plumber the contractor hired must have been Britney Spears. Every stainless steel fitting was cross-threaded. I had to put new drains in both sides, but couldn't figure out how to get the old ones off. So after buying new pliers and traveling 60 miles one-way to get a couple of tools and some plumber's putty, I got the damn thing apart at about 1:15 this morning.

20 minutes it took me to get it back together (no leaks), another 10 minutes to clean up, and here we are at the computer just after 2:00 nursing a beer and basking in my own glory. If only someone were awake to share this with me.

Now if you don't mind, I'm late for Labor Day.

So Commonly Mentioned

Until I hear differently, the couple made up of John Clayton Mayer and Jessica Ann Simpson are herein referred to as "J.J." I will probably mention their union many times in the near future and this will save me some time. I can't believe I'm following this.

And John, I don't believe the hype.

Don't Be Alarmed

I really just wanted to type a bit on this wireless keyboard, and throw in a link to johnmayer.com which has recently seen a makeover. John keeps a blog there now and (aside from the obnoxious commercialism) writes some pretty interesting stuff. There's a new store, too, and stuff about Continuum.

I don't get the hype between Jessica Simpson and John Mayer. Could someone explain that to me? Does he like her, or is this just a big publicity stunt? And why does it bother me like it does that K-Fed is now a rapper? Entertainment was never my thing, but when it comes to my only star, I get edgy. Jessica better not stitch him up, whatever the case. Keep the music flowing.

Oh, and someone get me tickets to Atlanta in October, okay? Thanks.

If the new counter at the bottom isn't displayed, view this blog with Mozilla Firefox. Don't ask me why.

Has anyone seen my USB drive?

Okay, So It Didn't Last

I was going off on my own, away from blogger, and thought I'd found a sweet peice of software that allowed me to blog away in my own independence as if I were my own geek. I thought I'd have the time to work out the bugs (there were none, just one configuration I couldn't manage to change). I just hate spammers. Plus I didn't get enough traffic there. In the weeks I had it going, there were only ~197 hits, mostly me from different locations.

Anyway, on behalf of benrehberg.com, I welcome myself back.

JM and JS? Not My Kind of Duo

I never thought Jessica Simpson would ever enter my life. I was perfectly happy not knowing what she was doing until I found out what was going on. John started dating her recently.

As if the TV show with Nick wasn't enough, and all the drama with the divorce, John's going to be distracted by the paparazzi and the rumors. Continuum is out September 12, and if the two of them stay together it will probably take four years for another album. His whole demeanor will change.

I forgot to tell him that I have to live vicariously through him - single and rich, doing exactly what I enjoy doing. If he hooks up, I have no one to model my imaginary life after. Thanks alot.

So John, congratulations. She's hot, but don't get all stitched up, or someone will find a bag full of chicken-tuna sandwiches on their front porch (maybe the one you'll be sleeping on).

Interestingly Enough, I Play Golf.

"When you reflect on the combination of characteristics that golf demands of those who would presume to play it, it is not surprising that golf has never had a truly great player who was not also a person of extraordinary character."
-Frank D. Tatum Jr.

Fantastic Getaway Weekend

We went to our third bedroom to complete a monumental task in two days. We almost did it.

The third bedroom used to be a "guest bedroom" of sorts, but Beth and I wanted an office where we could shut the door and study when needed. We moved both desks from the living room to the new office, and completed many other tasks. Here's what we did, and yes, we are tired.

I finished putting my new computer together (motherboard failure last week) and moved my desk to the office. We moved two full bookcases to accomodate a second desk. I installed three Ethernet drops behind the desks.

And we installed two more ceiling fans (the cool ones with remote controls), a closet organizer in the bedroom, a shelf above the washer and dryer, boards on the attic floor for storage, and I organized every cable I have in a five-drawer organizer thingy. The drawers are labeled "data cables," "power cords/adapters," "telecom," "audio/video cables," and "small devices," just in case you were interested.

Have a good week, people.

Update: Oh, and we also framed two pictures I painted in high school. Talk about things on the back burner!

Back in Time

I tend to get up pretty early in the morning (or have so for the past few weeks) and my wife hates it (so I understand now) when I turn on the light to get ready. We're (actually, Beth is) renovating Anika's room this week so Anika sleeps in our room for now. She's the real reason I didn't use the light.

So now I've been reduced to simulating an experience like that of waking up in basic training for fireguard - middle of the night, flashlight in closet/locker, clandestine attempt to muddle in the dark and get dressed. I was thinking about getting a red lens for my flashlight, but then I wouldn't be able to tell the blue socks from the black ones.

At least the coffee pot is quiet.

Competition

Amazon.com has become pretty cool with their recommendations and new interface and such, but it's still a store, like any other. Case in point:

I used Amazon's cool new "lists" feature to create a gift list for Beth. When I finally decided to buy, I discovered that they were out of stock on one item. I was going to order the only other thing on the list, but it was under $25 (no free shipping). So, what the hell - I went to my own wish list (only to find that half the shit on it was no longer available) to find something that would bring the total above that required to get shipping free. I found one thing, added it to my cart and voila! It was currently unavailable from the supplier. Seems odd since it was a NYT bestseller.

Off to buy.com I went, and got everything I needed (read: nothing for myself). No wish list there, just impulse at its best working for me.

I found it cool that it was just like the good ol' days when one couldn't find something at Wal-Mart. He just went to Kmart or Target and got it. Only today I didn't have to even stand up, walk down an aisle (or fart in it), or speak to a single person, but Amazon.com knows that I didn't buy anything today and left their site to go directly to buy.com. They know what they need to do.

And I'm Spent...

I think I'm going to have a tumor before I figure out just how Samba works on my FC5 box. I've been trying to build a Linux file server using big hard drives on old hardware, sharing files via SMB, but it just doesn't seem to want to work. I thought I had it working last night (I started this low-priority project two years ago) and wanted to expand the server to include the new 200GB hard drive.

I fucked it up. Again. And I had to reload the operating system.

Since I reloaded, I'm back to square one. Samba is not working properly and I can't figure out what the problem is. Again.

Never mind, I got it.

No I don't.

Fuck it - I'm installing Windows. Some things just aren't free enough. I've bought and read an entire book on Samba, and I haven't had any success. I have also consulted four other Unix/Linux books and several computing experts (none of whom have visited and shown me what's wrong) to no avail. To quote a famous line from my lovely wife, "This is me throwing in the towel..."

Update: I've got Windows installed and formatted both drives. I am moving all my movies to that server. I'm also wondering why I didn't do this a year ago.

"Continuum" out September 12

John Mayer has released another single, a preview of what will be on his new album, “Continuum,” due out September 12. This one's called “Waiting on the World to Change” and addresses some of the things going on right now. He mentions the war, and a few other things I can't remember (Anika was unhappy at listening time) and almost went against something he said two years ago (during the 2004 elections) in an interview. I remember when someone asked him how he felt about certain artists who give a little speech about their political leanings before their performance, and John didn't like it. He said something like “We're musicians. If you've got a message, write a song about it.”

And so he did. Except that John's got more of a perspective than a message, more of a question than an answer. We really can't ask for anything more.

This new song renews my interest in his music (it's just been too long) and inspires me once again to find something I really enjoy doing and find a way to make a living doing it.

Maybe later. For now, I have to pay the bills and try to get ahead in my career.

New Name

I was a bit late for the training this morning and when I got there I was informed that people were asking where “the skinny man” was. Great. Now I'm the outsider. There's no longer “the fat kid” because “fat” became “normal.” I shall now live the remainder of my life with the shame that I cannot be like the other kids.

Just kidding. But they were asking for the skinny man.

The 3x5 is Better on the Other Side

I just tried to read a blog on live.com and it really sucked. It was actually featured on the front page of MSN, and had a cool picture of someone in a straw hat looking over the desert. The tagline of the blog (according to MSN) was "Getting Used to New Mexico." I just had to read it. And it sucked. My blog is better, and I should just stick to reading it all the time.

But I'm writing today to tell about something my experience this morning helped me to realize: out West, as I like to refer to my favorite place, the pictures are so much better. We took such good damn pictures out there, and other than the photos of Anika, there has been no scene here like any of those in Colorado, Arizona, or New Mexico. The sun just shines differently over there, and in my eyes (through the sunglasses, of course) makes everything look better. I really gotta get out more.

This Bridge is Gonna Kick Ass

There are several websites devoted to telling people just how "bad" Chuck Norris is, and he is. This website says so.

So I came across an article this morning about 12 percent of voters in Budapest want their new 2.5-mile bridge to be named after Mr. Norris. I'm not sure what the voters will decide, but if Chuck Norris has anything to do with it when they pick another name, I am certain the bridge will come down with just one roundhouse kick.

Update: I realize this post may come across as my undying support for Chuck Norris. Truth (of my opinion) be told, he's old and never was much of an actor. These sites mentioned above are mere parodies and exaggerations joking of Chuck Norris' abilities because of the B- or C- class movies and TV shows he starred in, similar in case to those of Steven Seagal, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Arnold Schwarzenneger. The only difference among these names is that I didn't have to look up the spelling for Chuck Norris.

Fiber in the Morning for Regularity

If I had some half & half this morning, I would almost be in bliss. But even if I had all I ever wanted for my coffee, MediaCom still doesn't have a good contingency measure for a power outage.

What, do you ask, is the relationship between half & half and power outages? I have a routine, if you will, every morning. I get up, make coffee, and drink it while I check my e-mail, read some news, and research whatever comes to mind. Back in the day, dad's place was the garage or the woodshop out back, or some room he can read in. I have my desk, inconveniently situated in the corner of the living room, in sight of everything. But it is my place for me to enjoy. Early morning is the only time I have all to myself to do what I do without interruption, whether it be surfing porn, reading about protein synthesis, or looking for another job. My sanity depends on this; the day is not right unless I can have at least 30 minutes to myself. So...

My cable modem is out this morning due to a storm in Valdosta last night that apparently knocked out power to their head-end down there. What they must not realize or care much about is that quite a few of their customers these days depend on the cable network for telephone service. Since I moved into this house and was forced to use MediaCom cable, my modem has been offline at a minimum of once per week. The first three weeks we paid for the service, there was none. It didn't work at all.

I am one of those customers whose home telephone depends on their cable network. I am not a customer of MediaCom's telephone service (I use Lingo; it's cheaper), but nonetheless, I would be very enraged about this, I'm sure, if I had a teenage daughter. For as long as I can remember, the telephone was never out when the power went down. This outage is unacceptable, given the frequency. As a technologist, I know that there is just about no way to make a large cable network as solid as the telephone system, so when we start gabbing over copper cable with UDP packets, it's time to take another perspective on the network. Here's my solution:

Some companies are beginning to toy with the idea of running fiber optic cable directly to the customer's house. While this could prove very expensive, it would provide a robust level of service and expand the horizon of the service capability. With the bandwidth that fiber optics can provide, companies can run just about anything over it, including television, telephone, and high-speed Internet service, all at once, to every customer. Maintenance, in my opinion, would become almost nonexistent (recovering the initial cost of implementation) and service interruptions could only be caused by (and this doesn't help me today) power outages or a physical break in the fiber. This would greatly reduce calls to the technical support desk and hatred of such a big dumb company.

But I would still be out of service today, since no one wants to provide backup power to a head-end that serves, by my estimate, ten thousand people. They'd better hurry up, or I'll... Never mind. There is no other company to choose. Maybe I should start one.