Mail 73 November 1, - 7, 1999

HOME Current View VIEW Home MAIL Home BOOK Reviews © This week: Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Top	CHAOS MANOR MAIL A SELECTION Mail November 1 - 7, 1999 REFRESH/RELOAD EARLY AND OFTEN! CLICK ON THE BLIMP TO SEND MAIL TO ME The current page will always have the name currentmail.html and may be bookmarked. For previous weeks, go to the MAIL HOME PAGE. Fair warning: some of those previous weeks can take a minute plus to download. After Mail 10, though, they're tamed down a bit. IF YOU SEND MAIL it may be published; if you want it private SAY SO AT THE TOP of the mail. I try to respect confidences, but there is only me, and this is Chaos Manor. If you want a mail address other than the one from which you sent the mail to appear, PUT THAT AT THE END OF THE LETTER as a signature. PLEASE DO NOT USE DEEP INDENTATION INCLUDING LAYERS OF BLOCK QUOTES IN MAIL. *TABS* in mail will also do deep indentations. Use with care or not at all. I try to answer mail, but mostly I can't get to all of it. I read it all, although not always the instant it comes in. I do have books to write too... I am reminded of H. P. Lovecraft who slowly starved to death while answering fan mail. If you want to send mail that will be published, you don't have to use the formatting instructions you will find when you click here but it will make my life simpler, and your chances of being published better.. This week: Monday -- Tuesday -- Wednesday -- Thursday -- Friday -- Saturday -- Sunday Current Mail HIGHLIGHTS: Web stats and Linux Office 2000 and a new html editor And spelling The tariff issue again Climate, once more Lawyers and Toshiba A theory Real Audio snoops on customers and caves in Me, O 2000, and Microsoft: why did I change my mind? And you thought you had a bad day The site and its future: some thoughts The great auction flap. With some wider considerations. Does disk optimization work? Multiple paging in Office 2000 Locked bicycles The view with Opera and BeOS My blatant theft... (with thanks to Calvin Dodge) The decision continued...
© Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Top	Monday November 1, 1999 ALL SAINTS DAY There was a flurry of mail last night. Be sure to see last week.s mail for Sunday. The next letter is representative: Dear Jerry, On your latest "View" page you wrote: "I can also do more special reports now that things are settling in again. What else ought I be doing?" Might this correspondent respectfully suggest some more Linux? I suspect that would make the traffic count rise, especially if you were slashdotted (assuming your ISP's servers can stand up under the load). Also, I put your "Follow Me To Chaos Manor" icon (which I found after some searching) on my web page, so that should increase your web traffic by at least 1 or 2 hits. BTW, I learned last week just how easy it is to give Mac owners network access to files on my Linux box, and implemented it for our graphics/web page designer. I hope your illness is a short one, and I empathize with you, since I picked up something on Friday (and may miss work tomorrow as a result). Take care, Calvin -- "Hey feller! I bet you're still living in your parents' cellar Downloading pictures of Sarah Michelle Gellar And posting 'me too!' like some brain-dead AOLer" - "It's All About The Pentiums" Lots of you want more Linux. As it happens, two things are being done now. First, we are going to set up the rebel.com NetWatcher office server this week. Second, I'm hauling Linette out as soon as I finish building another Intel 750 Windows 2000 box. That latter ought to happen pretty soon. Hi Jerry, Just read your article on the Byte website. Why are you having problems with Office 2000. I haven't found any bad problems with it. There is a new freeware HTML editor that'll knock your socks off Homesite. It's here - http://www.evrsoft.com/1stpage/ Also I've been using Windows Commander for some time now and it's way ahead of NC for DOS. Windows Commander is at http://www.ghisler.com Where is there a website on Norton Commander for Windows? Ananda Sim http://www.clari.net.au/~ananda Ananda Sim Ananda@clari.net.au Well, I have slowly been learning how to use Office 2000 despite the wretched documents, and I am still using it. If there's a better editor than Homesite to use in conjunction with FrontPage 2000 I'm astonished, but I'll have a look. Actually I suspect I don't have to: several readers will try it. As to Office 2000 itself, once it's installed one may as well leave it in place, but I still see no real reason to install it in the first place UNLESS YOU are in a big corporation and need better cooperative and collaborative work. Office 2000 does work better there, I am told: I don't myself DO that kind of work. My current position is that if you have Office 2000 you may as well use it, but there is no compelling reason for the small office or individual user to bother with it just now. It has no great advantages. On the other hand, once you get used to FrontPage 2000, you may like it better than you did FrontPage 97. I have developed techniques with FrontPage 2000 that work pretty well now -- investigate the use of Paste Special (right click to get menu); it can be useful. Similarly with Outlook 2000: it takes forever to figure out the settings, but you can in fact get it to have Word as the reply editor, but not have to open dangerous files in Word to read them. That isn't easy, but it does work, and Word is a good reply editor for me. For this stuff I am using FrontPage 2000 which has word-like properties including on the fly spell correction, which I like. I'm interested in that editor. I don't know what you're asking about Norton Commander. For more on Office 200 see below. From: Stephen M. St. Onge saintonge@hotmail.com Subject: Casinos and tariffs Dear Dr. Pournelle: In Thursday's mail, Mark Thompson says: "Andy Kowalczyk's post, and your reply, make sense." I'm glad he understands it, because I must say, I'm confused as all get out. This all started with your Tuesday View comment: "Long article in the LA Times this morning about the Mississippi county just south of Memphis. ... Gambling has created two jobs for every inhabitant, but only one applicant in 7 from within the county is hired because they lack 'the basic skills of getting to work on time, looking a person in the eye, etc.' "The article says that most of the jobs are filled by commuters from Memphis ...how did people get from being poor hard working farmhands to the point of being unable to get jobs as janitors in a casino?" Mr. Kowalczyk suggests that the sharecroppers then had hope --in a land where they were called 'nigger' to their face, and the Klan was active -- but now their descendants have no hope -- after the Civil Rights Revolution, the rise of a black middle class, a black general who could probably be nominated for President by either major party if he wanted it. Well, maybe. Then you respond: "Well, my top of the head solution is the one that the Democrats used to tout: tariff for revenue only." How does a revenue tariff restore hope to people who've lost it, or turn illiterates who don't show up into hard workers? Then Richard D. Cartwright suggests that the real problem is that welfare promoted a lifestyle of joblessness, and that its gradual end is restoring a work ethic. You reply: "I suspected it was something like that." How does welfare tie in with tariffs of any kind? Am I missing something obvious? By the way, I agree with Mr. Cartwright. My family was on welfare for years, and I spent much of my youth living in a public housing project. That taught me that the welfare system is a trap for poor people, a slow poison for families and societies. Intentionally so, imao. But that's another letter. Stay well, and prod your publishers into getting the new Niven/Pournelle onto the shelves faster, please! You ask for more than I have time to give. First, I'd rather be called a nigger or a stupid swede or a mick or a spic and know I have a chance at end my life owning more than the po' trash who are calling me names, than have the local lower class call me "Mister", hand me a welfare check, and be sure I never did anything but take welfare. I mentioned tariff for revenue as one way to even the game a bit: if products including those of a US company must pay 10% to be brought into the US, then there is less incentive to export the jobs. Just as light industry was coming to the South we changed the game again and sent the industry to Mexico and the Philippines. Hope is the rational expectation that one can do better or one's children can do better. If it can't be restored it turns to despair and alienation. Think of the US is an employee owned corporation. If you think of it that way, then the obligation is to the employees, not to just the managers. It's also to those who live here. As to welfare being a trap, certainly; and if you can export the job, and get someone else to pay the unemployment compensation, you make profits at public expense. The point of a tariff for revenue is two fold: First, to make it more expensive to export the job, so perhaps it won't be exported at all. Second, to see that the tax burden of supporting those thrown out of work, or retraining them, falls on those who benefit from the cheaper goods obtained by exporting the job. Ideally, you'd adjust the tariff to balance the cost... Jerry: In regards to the article about a young girls' picture being banned from a yearbook due to it having a cannon in it, I would like to point out how far this policy can take us... Have they policed the library for pictures of guns in books? Military histories will have to be scrapped. Can't have kids reading about history and guns can we? What about any mention of gas chambers? Those are weapons, are they not? Can't have any impressionable youth reading about the Holocaust, can we? Le'Morte De Arthur? Forget it, they have swords and catapults! Can't have kids romping around beating each other with swords and catapults and surely ANYONE who reads it would want to. Why stop with the articles or images? Why not the words themselves? Perhaps an abridged dictionary full of words and concepts that are acceptable? Unfortunately I suspect that someone out there would probably agree that it's a good idea..... Let's take this a step further. What are we really teaching these kids? I was taught that I don't have to agree with you, like you, care about you or otherwise know that you exist. But as long as you do not violate my rights, I HAVE to tolerate you..... Even defend your right to be tolerated! Period. How does such a picture violate rights? The fact that we have created a policy based on the phrase "Zero Tolerance" is frightening enough. Some politically correct character probably realized that "Zero Tolerance" equates to a word that we have fought for years in our civil rights movements: "Intolerance," and changed it. Kids are not stupid, they will know that this yearbook decision does not make any sense. But we will stick to our guns and continue blindly forward, teaching them the value of intolerance at any cost. Armed with this, they will be well equipped to build societies that can kill thousands, make war and abuse civil rights for nothing more than someone being different. Extreme? Yes. Likely? I don't know.... I know this last leap in "logic" is extreme, but every journey starts with a small step. I wish we could avoid this one altogether. Marlin Roberts IS Manager, MCSE Well said. Jerry, In your most recent column, you wanted to be able to use Outlook 2000 with an editor other than Word, but still have spell check. I do, but with Outlook 97, not 2000. (I work for a large enterprise, in the group that manages the contract with the Desktop support vendor. I don't have the latest software, and the cobbler's children don't have shoes ...) Anyway, both are found under the Tools/Options menu. Under the "email" tab is a check box to select Word as the default editor. Just uncheck the box. The editor becomes WordPad, or at least something that looks and acts a lot like it. Without running macros. Under the "Spelling" tab there are 5 options to control that option. The most important one is "Always check spelling before sending." -- William Huebsch willj51@zdnetonebox.com Actually what I wanted was the real time on the fly spell checking and correction. I thought I remembered I could do that in Outlook 98 without making WORD my reply editor. Perhaps my memory was wrong. In any event, I now have Outlook 2000 with WORD as the REPLY editor, but not as the incoming text editor; I can read incoming mail in the same windows that I use to look at the mail in the first place, and if I open the mail it opens in plaintext, in what appears to be WordPad; in any event there's no attempt to run macros or other such stuff. I confess to have become lazy: I like having Word correct misspellings on the fly and tag others with the wavy red lines. The Check before Sending box does that as a batch file, and alas, it often wants to look at names and addresses and header stuff I wish it would ignore. Better to let it all happen in the fly, as I do. So my original complaints were unfounded: but it did take a good bit of work to find the right combination of settings. I'm happy enough with Outlook 2000 now. In fact, I have no objections to Office 2000 other than expense: I don't think you need it for what it costs. But I can no longer say you shouldn't use it if you have it. It has a stiff learning curve and does some things in an odd manner, but I'm getting used to it. Of course you can get used to being hanged if you hang long enough... But that is frivolous. In fact, Office 2000 seems to work pretty well if you have a big powerful system with lots of memory, and if you don't you shouldn't be trying it anyway. Studying Historical Climates From: Elizabeth Whitaker <ELWHITAKER@ftc-i.net> Dear Jerry: Being rather interested in both the historical and contemporary climate questions, after looking at the current thread on the subject, I'm curious as to why no one has correlated women's fashions with climate. For example, in the 1200s, women who had been wearing (apparently) transparent veils affixed with a headband started wearing opaque veils and wimples. This was also about the time that women's underwear appeared, as well as nightgowns. Meanwhile, there was apparently a new strictness in society -- and I've never known social trends to come out of thin air. (During the winters, the Thames started freezing routinely and English vineyards died due to cold.) In our own century, the floor-length dress has vanished from everyday wear over the decades, and women's underwear has generally diminished over time (per woman). But, slacks became accepted everyday wear during the 1970s as snow became routine. (We don't have quite as much snow during the winter over most of the U.S., but we have had quite a few record cold snaps.) I was born just after the epic winter of 1957-1958. (My parents tell me they spent many evenings that winter going out and watching the aurora borealis -- in West Virginia.) The next winter, my father sent my mother and me to his parents' home outside Columbia, South Carolina, just in time for a few inches of snow. (There's a picture at http://Web.InfoAve.Net/~elwhitaker/daybook.html . ) Look for the kid perched on what looks like a hill, wearing a snowsuit. Other memorable winters in my childhood were 1962-1963 (major snowstorm in Winston-Salem, North Carolina), 1965-1966 (Heavy snow outside Boston, Mass., just after Christmas, and my first Southern ice storms in West Columbia, SC), 1968-1969 (Very cold, with heavy snow in early January in eastern Tennessee), and 1972-1973 (Two heavy snowfalls, both over one foot, in Kinston, NC). I had a few days off from college during the heavy snows of January 1977 (Knoxville, TN). As you can see, I definitely do not believe in "global warming". Regards, Elizabeth Whitaker < ELWHITAKER@ftc-i.net > Excellent letter. Thanks. I don't know if I believe in global warming or not; that's just the point, really... And in that regard: From: Stephen M. St. Onge saintonge@hotmail.com Subject: Good news Two more interesting links in the global warming controversy. According to http://www.sepp.org/NewSEPP/GWisbeneficial.htm global warming, if any, is as likely as not to be beneficial. Meanwhile, http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/103199sci-energy.html reports that the amount of carbon released per unit of thermal energy is declining, and likely to do so even more in the future. Meanwhile, if anyone out there is actually interested in solutions to the alleged problem, I have two possibles. 1) Encourage lumbering. Recent news has it that planting trees is not a panacea for global warming, as the forest eventually reaches climax, and the rotting of leaves, etc., on the ground increases atmospheric CO2. Well, cut 'em down, and plant new seedlings. Carbon stored as structural wood and paper won't contribute to global warming, and if we encounter global cooling, we can always burn it. 2) Power plant greenhouses. According to Freeman Dyson, in From Eros to Gaia, one of the often overlooked things about plants is that their absorption of CO2 is limited by water availability. If the humidity is less than 100%, they lose water through their leaves. To avoid this, plants, close the "pores" in the leaves to a level that limits their water loss to whatever they can suck up through their roots. This is turn limits carbon dioxide absorption from the atmosphere. Well, put a greenhouse up next to a fossil fuel power plant, keep the humidity at 100 percent for whatever temperature is in the greenhouse (it needn't be hotter than outside), and pipe the exhaust gases from the power plant into the greenhouse. The plants should grow much faster than normal, absorbing much more CO2 than normal. By the way, Dyson has a new book out: The Sun, the Genome, and the Internet: Tools of Scientific Revolution. That's good news regardless of the global warming situation. Everything Dyson writes is worth reading. I will second your recommendation of Freeman Dyson's work. Freeman is the sanest man I know, and even when he's wrong he's wrong for good reasons. CO2 isn't the worst of the greenhouse gasses. We could get rid of more of it by encouraging more plant growth, and as you say, by clearcutting forests and allowing trees to grow back, just so long as we don't put the carbon back in the atmosphere by burning the trees. There's also encouraging more plankton growth in the sea, generally by correcting iron deficiencies; it's possible to seed the sea in a way that encourages plankton growth and that eats CO2 like mad, after which the dead things sink and stay down there until subducted. But once again, let me caution against DOING SOMETHING until we know what it is that we need to do. We don't really know climate trends, we don't really know the solar cycles over long terms, we don't know the solar output over long terms, and we don't know whether the earth is warming or cooling. When we know what we are facing we can figure out what to do, but meanwhile we ought to be finding out more, not rushing off to fix things when we don't know what's broke. For what we spent on flying people to conferences we could have put up a bunch more sensors and recorders find out what's happening. Dr. Pournelle, I read the response from the lawyer to my expressed dismay over the Toshiba extortion (settlement). As is always the case, an attorney's position on any matter only reflects his financial interest. Their code of ethics never negatively impacts their bottom line. Ever. Unfortunately they are smarter and more cunning than most of us. They make all the rules, and have been on a mission to make themselves a transaction cost in all human activity. Couple that with the "ethical bypass operation" they willingly submit to in the second year of law school, and we are as sheep before them. We could have an interesting discussion about how lawyers have constructed the tax code to keep themselves in the business of buying and selling votes for all eternity, but I'm afraid it would accomplish nothing. We are the host body, and they are a remarkably capable parasite. Watch how both sides of the house destroy McCain over his foolishness about campaign finance reform. Donald W. McArthur [don@mcarthurweb.com] I do not share your universal contempt for the law profession. Indeed, with John Adams, I hold that the legal profession should be the natural aristocracy of the Republic. Alas, it is not so; but be assured there are many attorneys who put the ethics of their profession first. But it is true that most laws and rules are made by lawyers, and that is often exceedingly unfortunate since every law and regulation becomes the law school graduate full employment act for that month. As to campaign finance 'reform' almost every "reform' I know translates to "enormous incumbent advantage." Were it left to me, my 'reform' would be to require that every contribution be made publicly; that 90% of the funding be raised in the district of the election; and that outside contributions to a campaign be made ONLY through organized political parties, which must account for all their donations by making their donor lists and amounts public. This would strengthen parties, keep the fund raising activities of representatives in their districts, and make it clear who supports what. Campaign finance "reforms" won't work, and perhaps should not. Let me give an example. Proxmire of Wisconsin was very much against research and development programs including space and military R&;D at a time when that was critical; so much so that I once seriously tried to organize a boycott of Wisconsin cheese so long as the people of Wisconsin continued to elect Proxmire. He held a powerful position over a matter of national importance. Parties couldn't touch him, and he could raise lots of money. Under most "reforms" those of us who wanted him out couldn't support his opposition. I could raise money for ads saying "Proxmire's a bum" but not for adds to be run in Wisconsin urging people interested in national defense R&;D to vote for his opposition. I give that as an actual example. Others come to mind. Any "reform" you come up with gives big advantages to incumbency. Of course the incumbent has a huge advantage in the first place; but unless his opponent can raise lots of money, he's almost unbeatable. And see below. Real Audio Snoops: THIS is a partial extract: from http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/11/biztech/articles/01real.html November 1, 1999 CD Software Is Said to Monitor Users' Listening Habits By SARA ROBINSON RealNetworks' popular RealJukebox software for playing CD's on computers surreptitiously monitors the listening habits and certain other activities of people who use it and continually reports this information, along with the user's identity, to RealNetworks, said a security expert who intercepted and examined data generated by the program. In interviews last week, company officials acknowledged that RealJukebox, which can copy music to a user's hard drive and download it from the Internet as well as play it, gathers information on what music users are playing and recording. * Company officials said on Friday that the registration procedure for the free version of RealJukebox did ask for personal information, including name and e-mail address, but they said that users could skip the registration and still use the program and that RealJukebox would stop prompting users to register after five attempts. Some customers, they said, had stumbled on this fact and had declined to register. However, customers who purchase RealJukebox Plus, a version with enhanced features that RealNetworks sells online for $29.99 with a money-back guarantee, cannot avoid registering since they must type in a unique serial number to install the program. And in this case, RealNetworks also gathers credit card and mailing address information before it assigns the number. (Alert sent by): -- Roland Dobbins <mordant@gothik.org > The complete article is available at the URL given above. Roland then sent: from http://www.tiac.net/users/smiths/privacy/realjb.htm ----- The RealJukeBox monitoring system Web Programming > Internet Privacy > The RealJukeBox monitoring system Richard M. Smith (smiths@tiac.net) October 31, 1999 Recently, I downloaded and installed the RealJukeBox player software on my Windows 98 laptop. The player is available at no charge from RealNetworks at http://www.real.com. It can be used to play music CDs, as well as record them to music files on a hard disk for future playback. Since its release in the summer of 1999, more than 12 million copies of the software have been downloaded. Unfortunately, I quickly discovered that the RealJukeBox software is sending off information to RealNetworks about what music CDs I listen to, along with a unique player ID number that identifies who I am. I also found that the RealJukeBox sends back to RealNetworks, on a daily basis, information on how I am using the product. It reports things like how many songs I have recorded on my hard drive, the type of portable MP3 player I own, and my music preferences. * Copyright (C) 1999 Richard M. Smith The remainder of the article is available at the URL above. You may then look at: Language added to the RealNetworks privacy policy on October 30, 1999 about the use of GUIDs in RealNetworks' software products http://www.real.com/company/privacy.html "A Globally Unique Identifier (GUID) is an alpha-numeric identifier that is randomly generated by a RealNetworks consumer application during installation. RealNetworks uses publicly documented standards to create a GUID. A GUID is used to indicate a unique installation of one of RealNetworks products, and is found in many popular software applications. A GUID does not contain or identify any personal information such as your name or email. A RealPlayer GUID is sent to a RealServer when you initiate a streaming media session. The RealServer only uses the GUID for authentication when you request limited-access streaming content. RealNetworks uses GUIDs for statistical purposes and to personalize the services that are offered within our products. We may use GUIDs to understand the interests and needs of our users so that we can offer valuable personalized services such as customized RealPlayer channels. GUIDs also allow us to monitor the growth of the number of users of our products and to predict and plan for future capacity needs for customer support, update servers, and other important customer services." Roland Dobbins <mordant@gothik.org > How much concern should we have about this? How arrogant! Real lost millions of formerly loyal customers in one idiotic move. I used to use RA &; Jukebox as opposed to MS-no more. Third party music software rejoice-the field is wide open. Unreal how clueless they are, isn't it. Both the NY Times and Junkbusters have good articles on this. http://www.junkbusters.com/ht/en/real.html K-Bob [kbob@cfl.rr.com] I am sure there will be more on this. Stand by. And here's an intriguing notion: The class action lawsuit against Toshiba was not settled because of fear of bad publicity. It was settled because, as quoted by Mr. Cartwright, "Company reps claimed that they could have been exposed to over $9 billion in damages should the case have gone against them." Exposure to even a low probablility of such ruinous losses makes companies eager to settle for mere hundreds of millions, especially if most of it can be in the form of rebates that at least buy you market share. The lawyers get what, $147 million? That's enough to even take care of some guys at Toshiba, as far as that goes. Loot one's own company via lawsuit. I can't be the first one to have thought of that.... Mike Juergens (mikejuer@netnitco.net) I can't be devious enough. I never thought of that one. Subject: Real Caved in See http://www.real.com/rjcentral/privacyupdate.html They've issued a patch which zeroes out the unique identifier. They've also turned off the gathering of some of their statistics as well. - Robert Morgan So that tempest is ended...
© Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Top	Tuesday, November 2, 1999 Hi Jerry, It looks like you have been told that you were missing some important "features" in MS 2000 products. However, if some features are so obscure that you have to be retrained to used them, maybe they were not implemented in a very usable way. Anyway, your column has the feeling of a kid catched doing bad things. I think that it is good to realize when one is wrong, but reading between lines looks like you've been politely told about your mistakes. I still have not taken a look to the new Office 2000 suite, so I still have not a personal opinion, however what I know from previous versions is that each update use to come with some new features (some fixes and also some new errors). But if a new release is not sensed as good enough at first sight, maybe the update cost is not worth at all (even when you are told about the new features). Please, go on as critic as you believe you have to be with all computer related products. If it is not good for you it is likely not good for the average reader neither. Best regards, Miguel Sanchez -- Miguel Sanchez Lopez \| misan@ieee.org Universidad Politecnica de Valencia \| voice:+3496 387 9700 Camino de Vera, 14 \| fax: +3496 387 7579 46071 VALENCIA (Spain) \| Believe me, I had not intended to come across that way. No one -- let me repeat, no one -- has put any kind of pressure on me. I try to be fair. Microsoft does make available the product managers and often the implementing programmers so I can find out things, and for that I am grateful -- not many companies do that. But they have never done more than suggest that I correct errors, and every time they have so far they have in fact found an error. Now the error is often that their documentation is so wretched that I wasn't able to make the feature work properly, or didn't find it; and when that's the case I say so. My policy has always been (and is announced as) "I will correct errors of fact, and I am willing to be convinced about errors of judgment, but I reserve the right to determine which is which, and to retain my own judgments." Anyone sending me stuff for review knows this. I don't claim infallibility, but the opinions and judgments you see are my own, not shaped by PR firms or large companies. And of those, incidentally, Microsoft is the LEAST likely to apply any unethical pressure. I have had Bill Gates himself telephone me about something I said in print, and talk me into modifying it, because I was plain wrong: the catastrophe I had written about had really happened, but it was in fact caused by two separate problems and the chances of their happening together were very small. It wasn't, in other words, something for readers to worry about (and it was being fixed even as we spoke). I verified that he was right and I said so. And Microsoft product managers do make contact with me, sometimes in alarm, about things I have said; and I have fixed those when I was in fact wrong. In the case of Office 2000 my view is that the documentation is wretched, and many of the features are so hidden as to be useless; but it's not as bad as I thought, and if you're a big corporate work group member who needs to do a lot of collaboration, Office 2000 may be precisely what you need. I still see no reason for single users and small office users to buy it; wait for the price to fall and the fix packs to come out. Thanks for asking. It's an important point. This came as a general mailing, but it seemed worth repeating: Next time you think you're having a bad day, recall that---- 1. The average cost of rehabilitating a seal after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska was $80,000. At a special ceremony, two of the most expensively saved animals were released back into the wild amid cheers and applause from onlookers. A minute later they were both eaten by a killer whale. 2. A psychology student in New York rented out her spare room to a carpenter in order to nag him constantly and study his reactions. After weeks of needling, he snapped and beat her repeatedly with an ax leaving her mentally retarded. 3. In 1992, Frank Perkins of Los Angeles made an attempt on the world flagpole-sitting record. Suffering from the flu he came down eight hours short of the 400-day record, his sponsor had gone bust, his girlfriend had left him and his phone and electricity had been cut off. 4. A woman came home to find her husband in the kitchen, shaking frantically with what looked like a wire running from his waist towards the electric kettle. Intending to jolt him away from the deadly current she whacked him with a handy plank of wood by the back door, breaking his arm in two places. Till that moment he had been happily listening to his Walkman. 5. Two animal rights protesters were protesting at the cruelty of sending pigs to a slaughterhouse in Bonn. Suddenly the pigs, all two thousand of them, escaped through a broken fence and stampeded, trampling the two hapless protesters to death. And the capper....... 6. Iraqi terrorist Khay Rahnajet didn't pay enough postage on a letter bomb. It came back with "return to sender" stamped on it. Forgetting it was the bomb, he opened it and was blown to bits. Here's hoping your day is better than any of these. Caroline &; Daniel Horton <mailto:consultant@web-consultants.com> And the moral of this story is... Just like TV, radio, and newspapers, there surely is a cycle to readership hits for your site, so I wouldn't be too worried. I'm probably not average, as I like the "short-shrift" mode. One representative of each viewpoint is enough for me--I get the point and really don't have time to read more, and end up skimming or skipping items, otherwise. I'm not too sure that I really enjoy all those follow-ups of readers who bang on your viewpoints, but are really just argumentative people, not thinkers who add substance, or end up shaping or altering your original opinions. If there really are a lot of people who aren't getting some point, it's one thing to make it plainer, but a few, I fear, are just in it for the attention. I got what you said about revenue tariffs the first time; maybe those who don't, ought to be excused from class participation. Also, I could be quite happy with one integrated View/Mail page. I have IE download automatically with the Synchronize for Offline Viewing feature, so time to load is really no concern. I, too, join with the others who would really like to see more about Linux: how to create a completely MS-free system. Now that's a frontier worth exploring. The learning curve might be high, but it was with MS, too. Not too many years ago, it took me over 30 attempts--changing one thing at a time--before succeeding to get the then brand-new Win95 to complete its install and successfully open programs (including some DOS ones). Nobody can tell me the curve for MS hasn't been high, too. How quickly we forget. Enjoy your perspectives, as always. --Chuck Waggoner [waggoner at gis dot net] I do try to be selective in mail, perhaps I should be more so. Thanks. As to Linux, stay tuned: we're about to move ahead on that front. Dr. Pournelle, You've commented on your (slightly) declining site statistics, and wonder what to do to increase them again. I think the main "problem" is this: You now have a column again, and much of the interesting computer stuff goes there first. That is as it should be, I am sure CMP pays you well for your words. I am a patron subscriber, since early January, but quite frankly, there is no longer a compelling reason to subscribe. There have only been a couple of "special reports" since then; most of your content is free. I am not complaining, mind you, you have limited time, and should be working on more lucrative projects. As much as I enjoy your web site, I love your books, and I hit Byte.com first thing Monday mornings to pick up your column there. If I were ever to be in such an envious position as yours, I'd concentrate on the higher-paying projects. My suggestion would be to return to the old days of your site, back when Byte was in print and this was another experiment. That is, use the site as a place to reference your works, link to Amazon to buy your books, link to Intellectual Capital and Byte, and put a few pictures around. Sort of a hobby. That way, you would't need to worry so much about keeping this up-to-date. Just a thought. Thanks, Mark Bridgers Your point is well made. Now that we have the column again, and they pay (very well) for it, it does cut back on what goes in here, as well as the time I have to do it; and in fact I'm pretty well going to have to do as you say. I enjoy playing with this place, and as long as I get enough income to cover the expenses and take my wife out to dinner once in a while, I'll keep it going. It is a way of immediate response, where the columns are still a bit delayed...
© Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Top	Wednesday November 3, 1999 Last night, I was working on my novel when something goofed up. Word97 locked up tighter than a drum. So, I cycled power and tried to load the file again. Nothing doing. It locked up again. I moved to a 2nd machine and Word locked up there, too. I didn't really want to lose last night's work, so I copied the evil file to a floppy and brought it to Dave who has StarOffice installed (I have it, but it doesn't do me much good sitting uninstalled on a CD-ROM.) Dave managed to open it just fine with Star Office. All of my edits of last night were intact. We immediately saved it. Star Office managed to repair the file just fine. Now I wonder if AbiWord would effect repairs as well. smiles and cheers, steve Fascinating. I haven't had an evil file like that since I went to version 2 of Office 97. I trust you are using the latest version? The earlier one was awful... It began with an experience narrated in view and continued there. That got a fair amount of mail, some of which raises interesting points. Jerry, you gave the auction a negative feedback, and the president is telling you "How dare you"!!? Stand firm. A feedback system is worse than useless if it only receives positive inputs. That is horrible customer service and we shouldn't have to tolerate it. - Robert Sir, I am unable to remember the exact advice that Robert Heinlein offered (thru L.Long) regarding how to deal with rude people, so I'll paraphrase: You have to keep hitting them until they apologize. Your reaction to the online auction experience was not out of proportion to how you were treated. I agree that the rating you gave was unjustified, accepting the proposition that the rating relates to reliability, etc... However, as you were immediately offered the opportunity to rate the experience, one can safely assume the rating relates to what you just experienced, not some future interaction. After all, how can you rate the reliability of the service if you have not yet been provided the most basic information (an address) required to complete the transaction? The response from the president to your letter was inappropriate for anyone, but most especially from someone in charge of a service business. I disagree with your decision to send him a "soft" response. He was wrong, he was rude, and he never acknowledged the root of your complaint, a fundamental lack of information. His "industry standard" response is the old childish excuse of, "well, everyone else was doing it." Keep hitting him. Maybe one day those who wish to offer a service will get the point that they need us, not the other way around. Bryan Broyles A soft answer turneth away wrath, but perhaps wrath is appropriate sometimes? Dear Jerry, FWIW, I used to list a large number of items on www.classifieds2000.com which is an auction service and part of Excite.com. Only about 1/2 of the "winners" (now there's an euphemism!) responded to the messages I sent to complete the transaction. About 1/2 of these would ever send the funds to make the "purchase". The amount of effort to manage the auctions was definitely not worth the effort and abuse. And then, there is the Canadian Postal Order I received which has no name that matches anyone I have dealt with and the amount (w or w/o shipping charges) does not fit any transaction and the email address does not exist... My personal policy was to only leave positive ratings for people who responded quickly and properly. I also do not use my "real" email account for these type of things, but instead use a free account somewhere. When the noise level on these accounts get too high I just switch to a new one. John jruff@excite.com I understand that problem. Indeed, all I needed was an instruction to the effect that instructions were coming. What I got was a strict order that I was now obligated to make contact with the seller and consummate the purchase along with a total absence of indication as to how to accomplish that result. Experienced persons would know. I didn't, and ended up getting blivets... Subject: The Amazon.Com Auction Issue Hello Dr. Pournelle, I read with sadness and amusement the issues presented on the auction debacle. Here is my view. The email you received on Monday in part stated the following: Does it matter if you had the address 1hr &; 24 min. ago when this auction ended? Not! The mail and your check would not arrive any sooner than it will now. So, take a Byte out of our Butt by knocking our not having an address in the ad. :) Not having seen the full email, I, apparently, did take this out of context, despite the use of emoticons. Having dealt with customers in the past, in a business where the customers die if they do not understand what is happening, I learned that one must be clear, concise and patient with customers, and never assume they can get the joke. Humor is good, but it must come after the facts and issues are clear to both parties. Simply, if this letter had been addressed to me, I would have been angry at the flippant approach. I suppose I use the approach that the customer is right until the customer realizes they are wrong. On Wednesday you received, in part, the following: Mr. Pournelle If you bother to read your mail and not make unsubstantiated remarks, you would be able to see what's put in front of you. You had been sent mail concerning this purchase and where to send payment. It was the first mail from us you received. What makes you think that the world revolves around your ideas and conceptions of what should and should not be. I do not need or care to listen to your diatribe. This is flippant and inflammatory. I care what a customer may write to me as a vendor/retailer/business-person, however, I Would Never Respond In This Way, even if the customer is angry, irrational or insane. A customers opinion and impression of a service is by definition substantial. If this business person does "not need or care to listen to your diatribe," why does this person reply at length to it? Why be unprofessional? A customers opinion is what drives a business. Your opinion, having some weight by your profession and likable or not, can be more valuable to a business than the average bloke. I fear the response I would have received, not having the public forum to vent and rant in. As a business owner, I would be terrified at having my own words implying my incompetence. I would recommend an approach like, "I am sorry that your experience fell below our planned process expectations, we would like to rectify the situation, please describe your experience...." Amazon's Mr. Bezos has mentioned publicly that customer service is vital to the Amazon.Com philosophy. I would hope Amazon.Com's partners agree with this view. Regardless, Amazon.Com or its partners must take a professional response to your issues and experience, especially since it is not immediately clear where one business starts and the other ends in the auction process. If a customer is unhappy with the process, Find Out Why, then Resolve The Issue, or lose the customer. My hope is that these businesses learn from this particular instance, or let Commercial Darwinism take over. I hope your shopping experiences in the future are less painful. Sincerely, Terry Losansky terry@tritiumsolution.com And that, I hope, is the end of that. It is certainly the case that what I learned from this is to avoid Amazon auctions. The experience was too painful.
© Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Top	Thursday November 4, 1999 Subject: Fwd: FW: I don't usually do chains, but this one's special. Fwd: ' TWAS THE NIGHT Subject: 'Twas the night....... 'TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS, HE LIVED ALL ALONE, IN A ONE BEDROOM HOUSE MADE OF PLASTER AND STONE. I HAD COME DOWN THE CHIMNEY WITH PRESENTS TO GIVE, AND TO SEE JUST WHO IN THIS HOME DID LIVE. I LOOKED ALL ABOUT, A STRANGE SIGHT I DID SEE, NO TINSEL, NO PRESENTS, NOT EVEN A TREE. NO STOCKING BY MANTLE, JUST BOOTS FILLED WITH SAND, ON THE WALL HUNG PICTURES OF FAR DISTANT LANDS. WITH MEDALS AND BADGES, AWARDS OF ALL KINDS, A SOBER THOUGHT CAME THROUGH MY MIND. FOR THIS HOUSE WAS DIFFERENT, IT WAS DARK AND DREARY, I FOUND THE HOME OF A SOLDIER, ONCE I COULD SEE CLEARLY. THE SOLDIER LAY SLEEPING, SILENT, ALONE, CURLED UP ON THE FLOOR IN THIS ONE BEDROOM HOME. THE FACE WAS SO GENTLE, THE ROOM IN SUCH DISORDER, NOT HOW I PICTURED A UNITED STATES SOLDIER. WAS THIS THE HERO OF WHOM I'D JUST READ? CURLED UP ON A PONCHO, THE FLOOR FOR A BED? I REALIZED THE FAMILIES THAT I SAW THIS NIGHT, OWED THEIR LIVES TO THESE SOLDIERS WHO WERE WILLING TO FIGHT. SOON ROUND THE WORLD, THE CHILDREN WOULD PLAY, AND GROWNUPS WOULD CELEBRATE A BRIGHT CHRISTMAS DAY. THEY ALL ENJOYED FREEDOM EACH MONTH OF THE YEAR, BECAUSE OF THE SOLDIERS, LIKE THE ONE LYING HERE. I COULDN'T HELP WONDER HOW MANY LAY ALONE, ON A COLD CHRISTMAS EVE IN A LAND FAR FROM HOME. THE VERY THOUGHT BROUGHT A TEAR TO MY EYE, I DROPPED TO MY KNEES AND STARTED TO CRY. THE SOLDIER AWAKENED AND I HEARD A ROUGH VOICE, "SANTA DON'T CRY, THIS LIFE IS MY CHOICE; I FIGHT FOR FREEDOM, I DON'T ASK FOR MORE, MY LIFE IS MY GOD, MY COUNTRY, MY CORPS." THE SOLDIER ROLLED OVER AND DRIFTED TO SLEEP, I COULDN'T CONTROL IT, I CONTINUED TO WEEP. I KEPT WATCH FOR HOURS, SO SILENT AND STILL AND WE BOTH SHIVERED FROM THE COLD NIGHT'S CHILL. I DIDN'T WANT TO LEAVE ON THAT COLD, DARK, NIGHT, THIS GUARDIAN OF HONOR SO WILLING TO FIGHT. THEN THE SOLDIER ROLLED OVER, WITH A VOICE SOFT AND PURE, WHISPERED, "CARRY ON SANTA, IT'S CHRISTMAS DAY, ALL IS SECURE." ONE LOOK AT MY WATCH, AND I KNEW HE WAS RIGHT. "MERRY CHRISTMAS MY FRIEND, AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT." This poem was written by a Marine stationed in Okinawa Japan. The following is his request. I think it is reasonable..... PLEASE. Would you do me the kind favor of sending this to as many people as you can? Christmas will be coming soon and some credit is due to our U.S. service men and women for our being able to celebrate these festivities. Let's try in this small way to pay a tiny bit of what we owe. Make people stop and think of our heroes, living and dead, who sacrificed themselves for us. Please, do your small part to plant this small seed. Roger D. Shorney [rogers@sofnet.com] Dear Jerry, There's a new NSTL report that concludes that disk optimization doesn't work. NSTL looked at the theory of optimization in general, and thenfocused on Windows NT, but their conclusions hold true across the boards--Windows 95, 98 and NT, as well as workstations, and of course, servers. The bottom line is that there are no tangible performance gains to be had by disk optimization. The problem is that no matter what you do to strategically place a file on a disk, they still get accessed in unpredictable, random order. and you really never know where data is ultimately going to reside. And today's "hot files" are not necessarily tomorrows "hot files." This is the first independent study that addresses optimization and what the analysts have determined is that the idea is simply smoke and mirrors. I am sending you a copy of the report--see Page 21, and a release. I believe you and your readers will find the data very interesting. Regards, Dawn Chaban 323-669-1739 Optimization I believe. Defragmentation is a different matter, of course. Now that it is relatively simple to have multiple screens in both NT and windows 98, the enhancement of not having one application window becomes important. You can have word windows (or other applications that used to have one containing window) spread across multiple screens. I use this all the time now, and when I pull up one of those “window containing” applications, I find it quite annoying. --- Name: Charles Bess E-mail: charlie.bess@eds.com I find myself forced to agree. In your November 01, 1999 column, you said this about Japan: "It's all very pleasant, and clearly it is safe: one of the most astonishing things I saw was nearly ubiquitous, unlocked bicycles parked all over the place including under those overpasses." Actually, all of the bicycles ARE locked. Japanese bicycles are usually built with a small lock attached to the frame. When you remove the key, a bolt slides between the spokes. It's easy to miss if you don't know what to look for. Japan is safe, but it also has a surprising amount of petty theft, especially of bicycles and umbrellas. I've only lived here four years, and I've already had three bicycles stolen. --Sherrod Segraves P.S. In your column, "Chiba Prefecture" was misspelled as "Prefect of Chibo." Well, all right, but they weren't chained to posts and things like that; in the US you see wheels dismounted and chained separately, and tryly heroic anti-theft measures. I saw none of that in Japan. Thanks. I thought I said Prefecture, and clearly I mistyped the name. Alas. Thanks
© Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Top	Friday November 5, 1999 I found NC 2.0.1 for Windows available for online download at http://www.symantec.co.uk/region/uk/product/nc/. Actually, this is the Symantec UK site with the NC product information. >From there, you can go to Shop Symantec which has three on-line shops linked. The first I tried, SoftGallery, could not link to the secure site to take my credit card, but had the product for $40 (39.95). The second I tries, buyonet, had the product for $50 (49.95). Took my credit card, immediate download instructions in my mailbox, and immediate download (well, as immediate as a 4MB download at 56k can be), and immediate installation and off I go. In writing you, I find also that I could have purchased the item direct from Symantec by online download for $53 (53). All the sites gave me $ prices, so there is some magic going on, as they were European sites, every one. I wish I had seen the Symantec download option as I like to buy direct from the company if the penalty is not too bad. I popped for the extra $10 from buyonet because SoftGallery, France-based, did not respond quickly to my inquiry as to how to get my credit car info through. They had a phone number and a fax form I could have used, but I don't know if faxing would have helped, if they had a problem taking US credit cards or orders. I didn't want to call long distance to France, since that destroyed the price advantage over buyonet. However, Softgallery did have the option to receive a CD of the product for $6.40 more, but it was not clear whether that was the retail package or just a Symantec CD or perhaps their own custom CD of the same file I downloaded. nc201 installed perfectly, and is a beautiful thing to see. I always keep NC 4.0 DOS on all my computers, but the truncated long file name problem with old DOS programs was a hassle. LINK was great and worth zipping big stuff to 8.3 conventions just to have convenient transfers when getting Direct Connect Cable was problematical. There is some linking capability in 2.0.1, as there is a "scan for connection" choice in the command menu which opens to with choices for a connection port, although all but LPT1 were grayed out. A number of other new features as well. Have not yet delved into the help files. Symantec UK had some information about ordering a manual, but only European addresses were given. So I have an electronic download of NC20 windows. Been a fan of NC as long as I've been a fan of yours, got NC (1.0 or 2.0, I forget) based on your enthusiasm in the 80's. The shareware clone was close but no cigar. I have been using Powerdesk, an excellent program as you have commented. I hope Powerdesk has not so habituated me that I can't make the shift over and back to NC. David Gemmer I continue to use Windows Commander; my version says it is Norton Commander for Windows 95 Version 1.0.2 and it works, although it uses QuickView Plus as the viewer, and so I keep old Norton Commander for DOS version 4.0 on my system and invoke it sometimes when I want to view some weird and exotic files since that old Commander viewer will look at ANYTHING. I will have to have a look at this newer Windows version and see if it has anything not in my 1.0.2, and thanks. I have fallen away from using Powerdesk. Perhaps I should renew the acquaintance, but the two Commanders between them seem to do well for me. Thanks again. From: Alvaro Arancibia <aarancibia@infosel.net.mx> To: Jerry Pournelle <jerryp@jerrypournelle.com> Subject: pournelle.com in Be OS Jerry: Just a quick note to let you know that your pages look just fine from Be OS (4.5). I'm using Opera beta and have used Net Positive (the included browser) and pages are OK. I'd say they look much better than when viewed from Linux, using Netscape. I know you're supposed to tweak settings al over the place, but its a nice experience to just open a new browser and see the pages one opens most in a few seconds and displaying with readable text, and good graphics. By the way, I can use a lot of Linux commands in Be in terminal mode. Weird but not more than from a KDE terminal. And I take advantage of the opportunity to steal a few cycles from your several multitasking threads to thank you, this time from the learning of the English language I, as well as other people, have derived from years reading you (and Niven). Regards Alvaro Arancibia Thanks for the kind words, and also for the information. I am about to set p a BeOS system, Eric has it running in his place, and when things get a bit more stable here I will probably convert Princess to a Linux box. Meanwhile, the rebel.com box is doing a great job... I confess I stole this idea right off this letter: Jerry, You know I'm no friend of Microsoft (or Ralph Nader, for that matter). I certainly don't care for some of the arm-twisting Microsoft has engaged in, and that activity (like threatening IBM with MUCH higher Windows prices if IBM continued to make OS/2 available) may very well be illegal (I'm no legal expert, mind you). But I agree entirely with you on this point - it's ludicrous for the judge to "define the market down" from "personal computers" to "personal computers which run on Intel chips". Hmmm ... using that standard, shouldn't Apple be sued? After all, they certainly have a bigger chunk of the "personal computers running on Motorola chips" computer market than Microsoft has of the Intel software market. Calvin Dodge http://www.caldodge.fpcc.net And my thanks to Mr. Dodge for suggesting it. And now we continue with the decision... From: Steve Setzer (setzer@backfence.net) Subject: Of monopolies and falling computer prices I have no argument with over 90% of your analysis; however, considering that the OEM price of Microsoft's operating system keeps going up, and has done so for a decade, it's difficult to argue that MS bears responsibility for the continued decrease in prices and increase in power. Operating systems show classic monopoly effects--every other component of the computer has gotten cheaper over the 1990s, but the OS costs more. Applications show the salutary effects of competition--prices tend to drop in competitive areas (e.g. office suites 4 years ago). Note also that the price of Office, while much less than a decade ago, seems to be creeping back upwards, at least in university bookstores. It will be interesting to see if Star reverses that trend. And, if you want to mention competitors that ran themselves out of the game, don't forget WordPerfect. Too big, too much overhead, they ran themselves into the ground and then got Novell to cough up a ton of money (well, Novell did get a few hundred million worth of prime developed real estate, and a great email program). I think dealing with that mess sapped Novell's energy for several years. Steve But it's not true: The operating system price hasn't changed much when it's first released, but it comes down fast after that. What's Windows 95 cost now? And upgrade 98 costs $70, which is not bad; CP/M cost that much, as I recall, and that was 20 years ago. Now it's true, all new computers will have the latest OS; but that's because the customers want it. The judge talked about the customers who wanted an operating system without a browser, but in fact that can't have been more than a few thousand people if that; now I doubt there are any at all. Why would you want Windows without some kind of web browser? Regarding browsers, every time I start Netscape I get a message asking if I want it to be my default browser. And every time I get an upgrade to Netscape I get another version of the little AOL man whether I want him or not. Annoying, but I don't feel much like lawsuits over it. WordStar was king once. Where is it? WordPerfect was king once. Now the government released the decision in WordPerfect (but never a Word version) but outside of law offices, who uses WordPerfect? CP/M was a monopoly by the definition used in this decision. Now it's gone. Microsoft has always done two things: run scared as if they were about to lose their big lead ("because he knows a frightful fiend doth close behind him tread..."); and get the product out early in the expectation that new hardware would bail them out if things were too slow. I expect to see them continue just as before. After seeing Judge Jackson's decision against Microsoft, I had a thought (rare as that is). A multinational corp. has no roots. Move the headquarters to a country you've bought , and thumb your nose. Offhand I'd say Poul Anderson outlined that with the Polesotechnic League and Nik van Rijin. And who could stop someone(thing) who can account for more money then three quarters of the nations on this globe from doing just that. Social awareness - not likley. Politics, buy 'em 2 for a dollar. No profit is made in shooting up your home - or spending so much on public work programs that the red ink will always flow over the black ink So someone sets up and runs his (her) own country. Can they do it for a profit. Hard to tell, always the fringe who won't agree to anything. Then there is the LARGE portion who won't get off their ass unless someone applys a sharp kick. Educiation is a plus, as long as you keep them employed. Nor is it profitable to go only for the bottom line, when you do that you kill your customer base (brings to mind the prices Microsoft wants to charge for Windows 2000 Pro) unless you inflate wages to match. And then there is the UNIONS. However, getting back to the point, could someone(thing) with that much money set up and thumb their nose - more then likely. Jeff Pelton jeff_pelton@hotmail.com The Polesomicro League... Interesting. Thanks.
© Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Top	Saturday Column deadlines.
© Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Top	Sunday This was column day after the Microsoft decision. Plenty of mail but no time to work with it...
© Chaos Manor home	Entire contents copyright 1999 by Jerry E. Pournelle. All rights reserved. Comments and discussion welcome.