| Wednesday,
October 9, 2002 I am home but there
is much to do.
At around 2:50 Pacific time, I was listening to NPR
and Congressmen were speaking with regard to authorizing hostilities with
IRAQ. I heard Representative Peter DeFazio from the fourth district in
Oregon state that the United States had never unilaterally initiated
hostilities against another state in all its history. This is wrong.
President Madison signed the declaration of war
against Great Britain on 18 June 1812. General Hull invaded Canada on the
17th of July, thus initiating hostilities. In 1898 Congress passed a war
resolution on the 25th of April against Spain. Admiral Dewey destroyed a
Spanish Fleet in Manila Harbor on the first of May, thus initiating
hostilities. These are two examples. One from over a hundred years ago and
the other from nearly two hundred. To state that the U.S. would be
beginning some new phase in international relations would be to state a
falsehood. Nations have stated an intolerable condition and proceeded to
war for hundreds of years. This is not something new as the Congressman
implies. I can only surmise that he was indulging in hyperbole or was just
ignorant of history.
Rodney Kendrick
Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately
explained by incompetence... Napoleon Bonaparte And
see below
Subject: Microsoft Users may be Charged for Security
Security as a profit center...
< http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2123526,00.html
> -- --- Harry Erwin, PhD, Senior Lecturer of Computing, University of
Sunderland. Computational neuroscientist modeling bat bioacoustics and
behavior. <http://www.cet.sunderland.ac.uk/~cs0her/index.html>
Absolutely no comment...
From Sue Ferrara:
Subject: From Debka
Giant Oil Tanker Explosion Sunday off Yemen Is First
Al Qaeda Strike at Persian Gulf Oil Routes with Aid of Iraqi Intelligence
Full story on the website at www.debka.com
Thanks! But note:
You've expressed some caution about debka.com
before; this might be another time-for-caution.
It's remarkably easy to create an explosion aboard a
tanker. I've come closer than I care to remember to doing just that,
many's the time. And initial reports show lots of indication that this was
an internal explosion (which does not, of course, rule out terrorism).
So... dead slow on the main engines, please. This
might very well be a case of terrorism, but don't fall over if it's not.
Editorial comment: The only UN Security Council
veto-holding member which may be relied upon to try and slow US actions
against Iraq is France. So if it is terrorism, it's remarkably hamhanded
terrorism.
Yours Aye.
Rod McFadden
Dead slow, aye aye.
Subject: game of the month candidate
Check out www.americasarmy.com
It's free. (We paid for it with our tax money.)
Requires teamwork.
excellent graphics.
Very embarassing to be killed by teenagers on the
net.
I have no relationship financial or otherwise with
the U.S. Army that created this software other than being a citizen.
Again you need a good connection.
Heh. And now I have a good connection. Thanks!
Subject: QuickTime/Real/WMP
I'm not sure what your correspondent Joe Rosmann
meant by his statement that "90% of all streaming content is created
using QuickTime and Mac tools." However, one of the most widely used
production tools in streaming and non-streaming media creation is Discreet
Media Cleaner Pro, which started life as a QuickTime-only solution. It's
used in post-production to "clean up" video and makes beautiful
conversions among all three media formats, working with many editing tools
(Avid, Premiere, Final Cut Pro, etc.).
Media Cleaner started life as a Mac-only program.
The current version, 5, is for Windows and Mac, and requires QuickTime on
both platforms (it includes QT 5 installers for both). The next version,
6, has so far only been announced for Mac OS X--I don't know what that
means for Windows support.
Discreet is an Autodesk company, and many of its
other products are either cross-platform or Windows only (3DStudio Max,
for example). There has to be some market reason why Media Cleaner is
moving ahead more quickly on Mac than Windows. Streaming video may not all
be created using "Mac tools," but a huge proportion of the best
video on the web went through Media Cleaner, a "QuickTime tool."
Oh, and I bet Media Cleaner Pro (on Windows anyway)
already can export to the new WMP9 codecs, or at least won't be far
behind.
Steve Setzer
Thanks.
Dear Jerry
Re: Project Orion
I noticed that on Thursday you posted the URL of a
Project Orion test video.
I first learned about the concept of pulsed fission
propulsion from reading 'A Step Farther Out', but have now just begun
George Dyson`s 'Project Orion', which seems to be a very thorough
historical investigation of the enterprise.
Indeed, Dyson`s book may have renewed interest in
the whole concept of nuclear power in space. For a site, which seems to
have begun this year, devotes itself to this issue. It can be found via
the following URL:
http://www.nuclearspace.com/
A multimedia gallery, which includes declassified
film footage of the test demonstrating the feasibility of pulse
propulsion, can be found there.
All the best
Christopher Woolfrey, United Kingdom c.woolfrey@bushinternet.com
Yes. Understand, my only connection with Orion
was to do some evaluations of the concept back when Taylor and Dyson were
doing the work. I made some recommendations that were not followed.
Doc, I can safely say that Agent is hands down a
much better newsreader than Outlook Express could ever hope to be, in the
same way that Vopt is a much better defragger than the one that came with
Windows. It can also double as your email reader, though I doubt you would
be interested in replacing Outlook.
Agent has an excellent freeware version available,
and it only costs $29 to register. If you are interested, their homepage
is http://www.forteinc.com/main/homepage.php
.
Casey
Been meaning to get to that, when I find a round
tuit. Thanks.
And my regular exhortation:
Oct. 5
Dear Jerry:
What the heck is "partial" DSL, when it's
at home?
While it's always nice to see my scribbling on the
site the gist of my last really was: buy a Mac. You, personally. Now. You
will thank me.
I can't afford to bet you an amount which would be
significant to you, so I'll make it a "gentleman's" wager. Buy a
dual processor Power Mac running OS X 10.2 (Jaguar), and if in three
months (allowing for the learning curve) it's not your preferred platform
I'll eat my proverbial hat.
Windows runs on faster and cheaper hardware but I
still grit my teeth when I have to go back to it. After Jaguar "once
you go Mac you'll never look back" or something like that.
"Try it, you'll LIKE it!"
Best -
Tim Loeb
Well, given my business I have to look back, but
I understand what you mean. Thanks.
From Joe Zeff, on a new scam:
There's an interesting article at The Register, http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/27450.html
. Apparently, the newest Nigerian scam is to order goods with stolen
credit card numbers, having it shipped through a freight forwarding
service that sends it on to Africa. The victim ends up with neither the
goods nor the money. However, it also tells of a service that warns
on-line merchants of scams like this. In the case given, an e-tailer lost
520 Pounds because he didn't subscribe and see the warning.
The service is in Britain, but there's no reason to
think it's warnings aren't good elsewhere. It looks like a good thing,
and, in any event, I'm glad to see people finding ways to fight back.
Thought you'd want to know.
Thanks
And from Ed Hume,
Subject: Customizing XP folder backgrounds
Jerry
Drew Parkhill complained that Win XP had taken away
some of his customization options. Well, it has and it hasn't. Certainly
there's no mechanism to set up a background picture, however . . .
I upgraded my installation of XP Pro from an
installation of Win BugME. I had customized folder backgrounds. They
remain in XP. I haven't (until now) been able to create new ones, but Mr.
Parkhill's missive got me thinking: if some of my folders have
backgrounds, can't they all?
So I transferred a Desktop.ini file from one folder
to another. I experimented with removing items until I found the
irreducible minimum:
[{BE098140-A513-11D0-A3A4-00C04FD706EC}]
IconArea_Image=imagename.xxx
This assumes the image is in the folder to be
customized. At minimum, xxx can be .jpg or .bmp. For others, try it
yourself.
The imagename can be in the form of foldername\imagename.xxx
for a directory within the folder to be customized, or X:\directoryname\imagename.xxx.
At least, this is what works on my machine. I don't
have any reason to believe that the CLSID (the 36-character string denoted
by [{}] above) will be different in different installations. OTOH, it may
be that the only way to have such customization is to install Win BugME
first and install XP over it. That kind of stuff is way beyond what I am
willing to invest to learn . . .
Ed
Thanks
And from Eric:
In regard to Drew Parkhill's complaints about the XP
desktop: The claim of not being able to use desktop images stored in other
locations is simply not true. I've had no problem selecting images,
including tiling an animated GIF to briefly test my sanity, from any place
on the system, and those selections survived rebooting.
The complaint of being unable to change certain
elements of the 'Luna' desktop is essentially true but not for the reasons
immediately suspected. Oddly enough, it isn't that the old modification
options were taken away. They're still there and they work, if you're in
the Windows Classic mode. The problem is that there isn't enough of the
new stuff.
The new appearance introduced with XP is called
Visual Styles. Essentially MS took what people know as 'skinning,' the
ability to alter the cosmetics of an application and made it an OS level
function. This is a great improvement for developers and users alike, much
like the change from supporting printers separately in each application to
making the OS perform the function for all apps. All fine and good, except
the implementation of Visual Styles is incomplete in terms of the
interface.
In addition to selecting Windows Classic from the
Appearance tab of the Display control panel you can also turn off Visual
Styles by going into the System panel and going into the Performance
section under the Advanced tab. (System|Advanced|Performance in sequence)
Select custom and you find the Visual Styles tab at the bottom of the
list. This method has, so far as I can tell, the exact same effect as the
Display|Appearance method. I suspect it appears in the Performance list
solely for conveying the concept that this feature consumes more CPU time
than the Classic mode and thus might be preferably turned off on systems
lacking CPU speed, video performance, RAM, etc. The usual suspects.
Visual Styles is a much more sophisticated API set
than what came before. Where previously all of the display elements where
little more than lines and color fills there are now textures and many
other items from the modern graphics library. The user controls in the
Display panel simply don't know how to talk to the newer format
parameters, so rather than supply the necessary tools they gave the Visual
Styles themes protected species status by which they simply ignore any
attempts at modification. Note that this is just my suspicion based on the
info I could find in MSDN and elsewhere. It may be that the modifications
are being accepted (the Theme selection tab seems to indicate this) but
what is being changed isn't visible when Visual Styles are active.
Although this info may be interesting it doesn't
change the essential complaint. If a 'XP SE' is due out next year it would
be a good time to provide the tools to modify Visual Styles themes in the
fashion Windows users have long been accustomed. Or to make it up to
current users those tools could be released initially as a Power Toy or in
an update to the Plus! package. (Expect to see this in the initial set of
complaints on www.mswishlist.com!)
In the meantime, if you don't mind a little expense,
there are some third party products that allow for a very elaborate
alterations of XP's appearance. At the API level there's some very nifty
stuff. It just takes good developers to expose it to users. The best or at
least most prominent of the bunch is found at Stardock Systems. (www.stardock.com)
They have a wide variety of products beyond just cosmetic modifiers.
They've carried out the work of exposing XP's APIs to the end user in many
ways that Microsoft has yet to do. (Never mind that this opportunity for
ISVs goes against the default image many hold of Microsoft. Don't think,
it just makes your head hurt.)
Next up is TGTsoft (www.tgtsoft.com) with their
StyleXP, StyleBuilder, and Res Builder tools. In the visual mod area this
is like Stardock's best competition.
Also out there is Cronososoft (www.cronosoft.com)
whose products are a little harder to judge as their Romanian origin
results in a somewhat linguistically impaired site. Might be good stuff
but I lacked the patience for digging too deep in the face of such
descriptions in the wee hours of the morning.
Also notable is a site I found in the process of
finding XP visual tools. Called Fun With XP (www.funwithxp.com), it offers
a useful place to find a vast array of resources for the current OS
generation on most new computers sold.
On a different subject:
Subject: Onion Piece about RIAA Suing Radio Stations
Close To Truth...
Jerry,
Thought you might find this amusing:
< http://theonion.com/onion3836/riaa_sues_radio_stations.html
>
Although... It may be closer to truth than fiction.
Open nets... -- Norman Ferguson | Network
Consultant/Thespian Member, Apple Consultants Network | Microsoft
Certified Professional
Amusing if you don't cry thinking about the
situation.
And end on a serious note:
Hi Jerry,
Isn't it interesting on how certain nations that
support weapons inspections are also nations that Iraq owes a great deal
of money? I understand that those nations feel that a regime change may
mean that Iraq would void that debt, but the Incompetent Empire naturally
would keep oil prices high in order to pay that debt. Which would be
acceptable if they were in the crosshairs. On another note, perhaps not so
incompetent... if Turkey's commutation of the death penalty for Ocalan is
groundwork for a postwar settlement. Although I cannot imagine anyone
settling the Turk-Kurd issues, let alone the USA, it is good to have a bit
of optimism heading into the weekend. As far as the financial economy, how
certain are we of the numbers? How many were fudged, for do we really
think only a handful of large companies did this? And when do we publicly
hang the accountants? Talk about custodes custodiens!!
Best regards, Jim Laheta
ps. I love the Oman Observers' bottom of page: the
oil prices right next to the prayer schedule.
I still want to put the money into developing
energy sources including space solar power. Not likely, it seems...
And from Sue:
Subject: But of course!
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/10/05/1033538813111.html
Smart wives improve men's lives
October 6 2002 The Sun-Herald
Being married to an intelligent woman could be a
man's best chance of avoiding an early grave, it is claimed.
New research suggests that having a well-educated
wife helps lower a husband's blood pressure, reducing the risk of heart
attack by up to half.
It is also claimed brainier women enforce better
lifestyles in the family, encouraging partners to follow a good diet, stop
smoking and seek medical advice.
The study, details of which are published in the
latest issue of the International Journal of Epidemiology, found a strong
link between the total years of education a wife had and the health of her
spouse.
The effect was seen in all couples, regardless of
how educated a husband was, except for those men who had very little
formal education.
The research was based on a sample of 20,000 married
men aged 35 to 56 in Norway.
I knew that....
In interesting notion:
Good morning, Jerry.
The Business Class column in the Washington Post is
polling readers for "nominations for stupid airport security rules
the government should eliminate." Nominations are to be sent to alexanderk@washpost.com
and will be submitted to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
Since you complain about such rules, maybe you and
your readers should jump on the Business Class bandwagon--or maybe start
up your own bandwagon.
Of course, complainers will need to know what they
are talking about--i.e., what the existing security rules are. I don't
know if the rules are written down anywhere. Maybe one should complain
about stupid security practices, rather than rules. Maybe complaints
should include when and where the stupid practices were observed--just in
case the TSA weenies don't know what's going on outside the Beltway.
Best regards - Robert Griswold
Thanks.
Send not to learn for whom the bell tolls. It
tolls for thee...
When Back-Office Work Moves Overseas, What Happens
to Workers
It may be good for business owners to shift
back-office operations overseas, but is it good for workers? Advocates of
the off-shore strategy say yes. Contact centers and transaction-processing
facilities in places like India and Mexico can provide good jobs to poorer
countries, they argue, adding that U.S. employees who lose work may
eventually find higher-skilled positions. Critics, though, don't buy that
version of globalization. They say workers in the developing world can be
exploited, and U.S. clerks, accountants and call center workers are by no
means guaranteed a decent-paying replacement job. Especially given the
slow pace of economic growth compared to a few years ago, moving
back-office work overseas will hurt the most vulnerable Americans,
suggests Jeff Faux, economist with the Economic Policy Institute.
"It's going to have an impact on opportunities for people to rise up
the economic ladder in the U.S.," he says.
The debate isn't exactly new. It follows disputes
over the loss of manufacturing jobs and, more recently, information
technology work to lower-wage nations. In contrast to those earlier
controversies, though, the labor issues involved in sending back-office
operations overseas haven't boiled over much into the public arena.
Perhaps that's because a relatively small amount of back-office work has
been transferred away from the U.S. Last October, research firm Gartner
found that just 5% of U.S. corporations with revenues ranging from $100
million to $4 billion outsourced, or had the intention of outsourcing,
portions of their back-office offshore. And although major names like
General Electric, American Express and Conseco have established their own
back-office facilities in countries such as India, China, Mexico and
Jamaica, many smaller organizations have not jumped on the bandwagon.
But they may soon. The logic behind going global
with accounting, data entry and customer-service tasks is compelling.
While call center workers in the U.S. can make in the high $30,000 range
or more a year, their Indian counterparts might earn $4,000, or up to
$7,000 for a management-level post. Including other expenses, total cost
savings of 30% to 40% are possible in moving back-office tasks overseas.
What's more, the quality of the work can surpass expectations. While
clerical and call center jobs in the U.S. often are seen as
mediocre-paying dead-ends, the same work is a relatively high-paying,
high-status job in a developing country. That can translate into
better-educated, more-motivated employees halfway around the globe.
Betting that more and more U.S. and European-based companies will see this
light, business process outsourcing outfits are springing up in India
especially.
India's National Association of Software &
Services Companies (Nasscom) says the country's call center and BPO
industry - what it calls IT-enabled services - grew by 70% during the
2001-2002 period to a total of $1.46 billion in revenues. And Nasscom has
a bullish outlook as well. Indian revenues in IT-enabled services should
jump to $16.94 billion by 2008, capturing more than 10% of the global
market, Nasscom predicts. Indian employment in the field, Nasscom says,
could rise from roughly 100,000 to 1.1 million people.
A study last year by London-based consulting firm
Ovum found that call center capacity worldwide will nearly double within
five years, growing from 7.3 million seats in 2001 to over 13 million
early in 2006. Ovum also saw the call center industry growing particularly
fast in Central and Eastern Europe and in South and Central America
(including the Caribbean). Both of these regions' share of global call
center capacity will jump from 2% of worldwide call center seats in 2001
to 7% in 2006 (a combined increase to 14% from 4%), according to Ovum.
But it's not clear the back-office overseas switch
is ideal for workers in developing countries. Not all Indian facilities
are air conditioned, notes Vail Dutto, CEO of a U.S.-based contact center
outsourcing firm. Dutto toured 20 Indian sites earlier this year while
seeking an Indian partner for her firm InTelegy. In India's tropical
climates, lack of air conditioning all but guarantees a "data
sweatshop" atmosphere. What's more, some back-office facilities in
India have smaller personal work space standards than offices in the U.S.,
says Chuck McDonough, director of accounting for the World Bank, which
moved some back office operations to Chennai, India last year.
Besides the prospect of hot, cramped offices,
another concern is the ability of workers in poorer countries to organize
independent unions, suggests Candice Johnson, spokeswoman for the
Communication Workers of America union. For example, she says, labor
leaders in Mexico have been fired and beaten up. "It's still a very
difficult thing to do to exercise your rights to organize as a
worker," Johnson says.
< snip >
Ave! In fact we can count on corporate generosity
and ethics. Nothing can possibly go wrong, as we raise the world living
standard.
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An Urgent
Warning for HP users of XP
