View 273 September 1

THE VIEW FROM CHAOS MANOR

View 273 September 1 - 7, 2003

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Monday September 1, 2003 Labor Day

Celebrated a bit differently from the Red May Day...

There was considerable mail over the weekend. Including an on-going discussion of Thermal Protection Systems for reentry.

============

Is there any way to get a physical address for these Viagra spammers? The web site seems to be registered to someone in India. I get weary of 20 to 30 messages a day with different return names and subjects and all of them Viagra adds. Since they clearly expect someone to buy their stuff, they must exist; and surely there is a way to make them wish they were not doing this? This has been going on for weeks. I wonder no one has figured out a way to worm their systems.

www.meds4yourlife.biz is clearly a real web site. How dare they send out all this crap? How can they get away with doing this?

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Tuesday,

Hot Fudge Sundae:

Subject: 2014

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3200019.stm

Roland Dobbins

I am having the air conditioning unit repaired. It is HOT here. Sigh.

Ronald Maurer I have your check but not your email address for a subscription...

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Wednesday, September 3, 2003

The air conditioning repair was hideously expensive. I am sure I was over-charged, but it was fixed, some preventive maintenance was done, and it all works again, and I didn't have to use up time I don't have calling around for better estimates. Still, it was a nasty surprise. I had better get to work...

Column Time

Mamelukes and other fiction time.

I'm dancing as fast as I can. There's mail on a number of interesting subjects, and a few comments there.

Lest everyone get too happy, I recommend:

John Derbyshire on Conservatism & Truth

http://www.nationalreview.com/script/
printpage.asp?ref=/derbyshire/derbyshire080202.asp

August 2, 2002 8:45 a.m.

Unpleasant Truths

A conservative view of the world today.

It may be I am not a true conservative. Still, what Derbyshire says has a lot of truth in it. Eternal vigilance and all that...

And:

"SAID HANRAHAN"

by John O'Brien

http://www.middlemiss.org/lit/authors/obrienj/poetry/hanrahan.html

"We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,

In accents most forlorn,

Outside the church, ere Mass began,

One frosty Sunday morn.

The congregation stood about,

Coat-collars to the ears,

And talked of stock, and crops, and drought,

As it had done for years.

"It's looking crook," said Daniel Croke;

"Bedad, it's cruke, me lad,

For never since the banks went broke

Has seasons been so bad."

"It's dry, all right," said young O'Neil,

With which astute remark

He squatted down upon his heel

And chewed a piece of bark.

And so around the chorus ran

"It's keepin' dry, no doubt."

"We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,

"Before the year is out."

"The crops are done; ye'll have your work

To save one bag of grain;

From here way out to Back-o'-Bourke

They're singin' out for rain.

"They're singin' out for rain," he said,

"And all the tanks are dry."

The congregation scratched its head,

And gazed around the sky.

"There won't be grass, in any case,

Enough to feed an ass;

There's not a blade on Casey's place

As I came down to Mass."

"If rain don't come this month," said Dan,

And cleared his throat to speak -

"We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,

"If rain don't come this week."

A heavy silence seemed to steal

On all at this remark;

And each man squatted on his heel,

And chewed a piece of bark.

"We want an inch of rain, we do,"

O'Neil observed at last;

But Croke "maintained" we wanted two

To put the danger past.

"If we don't get three inches, man,

Or four to break this drought,

We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,

"Before the year is out."

In God's good time down came the rain;

And all the afternoon

On iron roof and window-pane

It drummed a homely tune.

And through the night it pattered still,

And lightsome, gladsome elves

On dripping spout and window-sill

Kept talking to themselves.

It pelted, pelted all day long,

A-singing at its work,

Till every heart took up the song

Way out to Back-o'-Bourke.

And every creek a banker ran,

And dams filled overtop;

"We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,

"If this rain doesn't stop."

And stop it did, in God's good time;

And spring came in to fold

A mantle o'er the hills sublime

Of green and pink and gold.

And days went by on dancing feet,

With harvest-hopes immense,

And laughing eyes beheld the wheat

Nid-nodding o'er the fence.

And, oh, the smiles on every face,

As happy lad and lass

Through grass knee-deep on Casey's place

Went riding down to Mass.

While round the church in clothes genteel

Discoursed the men of mark,

And each man squatted on his heel,

And chewed his piece of bark.

"There'll be bush-fires for sure, me man,

There will, without a doubt;

We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,

"Before the year is out."

Around the Boree Log and Other Verses, 1921

But then:

I don't have an author for this, but it's the American folk wisdom, which

tends to contradict Hanrahan.

My granddad, viewing earth's worn cogs,

Said, "Things were going to the dogs."

His granddad, in his house of logs,

Said, "Things were going to the dogs."

And his grandad, in the Flemish bogs,

Said, "Things were going to the dogs."

And his grandad, in his old skin togs,

Said, "Things were going to the dogs."

There's one thing I have to state:

The dogs have had a good long wait

==============

And finally, in direct answer to Derbyshire:

http://www.frontpagemag.com/
Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=2305

==============

Cartoon: two economists dying in the desert. "When the price we're

willing to pay reaches the market clearing level, there will be

water".

================

NOTE THIS from Roland Dobbins:

Begin forwarded message:

> Subject: [Full-Disclosure] Flaw in Microsoft Word Could Enable Macros

> toRun Automatically (827653)

> Just Released today

> http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?
url=/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-035.asp

> Microsoft Security Bulletin MS03-035 Print

> Flaw in Microsoft Word Could Enable Macros to Run Automatically

> (827653)

> Originally posted: September 03, 2003

> Summary

> Who should read this bulletin: Customers who are using Microsoft� Word

> Impact of vulnerability: Run macros without warning

> Maximum Severity Rating: Important

> Recommendation: Customers who are using affected versions of Microsoft

> Word should apply the security patch immediately.

> End User Bulletin:

> An end user version of this bulletin is available at:

> http://www.microsoft.com/security/security_bulletins/ms03-035.asp .

The Full bulletin is available here.

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Thursday, September 4, 2003

There may be a worm loose inside my system. I'm working on it now, and this will be a sort of log.

Meanwhile, the column proceeds, and one item will be Microsoft's failure to give progress reports on certain anxiety-causing operations. When you have updated your system after major problems, Microsoft ought to have progress meters; I would rather it took 10% longer and be sure things are going properly than wait a minute in the dark wondering if things are broken.

I have been getting an ungodly amount of mail returned as sent by me with a virus infection. So far as I can tell, none of it is to people actually in my address book (including subscribers, whose mail addresses are kept in a separate box for precisely this reason) so I presume that someone else's machine is being used as a virus spam server and it is faking my address. But we have been getting hideous interruptions in our Adelphia Cable service, and calls to the them indicate that many of those who call them turn out themselves to be infected. I do not think we are, but I am now checking all our machines.

One thing I am doing is updating the servers to be sure they have the latest Windows Updates, and of course when that happens there's this long delay when they come up, and there's no flow meter, and it's frustrating if you are impatient as I am. Ah well. God grant me patience. Now, if you please.

================

My Iraq commentary for the day is in mail.

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Friday, September 5, 2003

Adelphia tells me I am getting a weak signal, and they say they can see that the modem is receiving down 10 db. How they can tell that from their central HQ I do now know. They also claim that there's no great message congestion in my area.

I continue to get periodic interruptions of service, lasting for from a few seconds to a couple of minutes. This is annoying but not fatal although it has been fatal to a couple of on-line game characters. At the suggestion of an Adelphia tech, who knew who I was from the name on my account, I got a Weingard TV amplifier and tries that. Actually the tech suggested a Radio Shack "coax amplifier" but my local one doesn't have one. I got the Weingard at $137 from Electronic City.

It doesn't work: that is, the cable modem apparently sees some kind of signal from it, because the "cable" light blinks slowly, but it continues to blink slowly at any gain setting, and the blink rate never changes, nor does it change to solid. If I remove the input to the amplifier box the light goes out entirely, so I guess some signal gets through; this thing is a black box without even a power on light so I can't tell a thing about it. I suppose I could put a scope on the output, but I haven't done that.

Removing the amplifier from the setup and reconnecting directly to the cable modem the "cable" light blinks a couple of times, then blinks rapidly for a a few seconds, then turns solid which I gather is the locked on signal. I have nothing that tells me what the Modem, a Teryon TJ 715, thinks it it telling me with the blinking light, but in normal operation the "cable" light is solidly on all the time, no blinks.

It may be that the Wingard "TV Amplifier" is the wrong beast for the job. I would appreciate any advice.

Later: I now know what the problem was.

======================

Regarding the "new" Heinlein novel.

http://www.heinleinsociety.org/newsFUTL.html

I have known for 20 years that Robert had an unpublished novel. I have known for several months that a copy had been discovered and that his estate had decided to publish it. I don't know if Ginny knew of it, or if she approved its publication, but I think she did not know that a copy had been found. I do know that I have a couple of letters from Robert which he said I could not publish during his lifetime, and which Ginny requested that I not publish during hers (she put it that way since Robert had specifically said I could publish but only after he was dead). It may be that she said the same thing about this new novel: that she didn't want it published during her lifetime. I do know she was dead before I ever heard that the manuscript had been discovered, and it seems unlikely that she ever knew it existed. My guess is that had she been asked what to do with this newly discovered copy of this early work she would have ordered it burned.

I cannot recall specifics, but it was my distinct impression that Robert had deliberately burned all known copies of this book. He once told me that "everyone in our racket has something in his trunk that he doesn't want anyone else to see." Whether that refers to this novel or not I do not know, but it would be my guess that it did.

It is said to have been unpublishable at the time of writing because it is too racy. That may well be the case. He certainly could write racy as his last books show. He also said that if you inject sex into a book it takes it over, and usually makes a bad book, and usually accompanied that advice with vague references to having tried it once; but this was years before his last works. He did tell me that I had to get Roberta's permission before I could read To Sail Beyond The Sunset because "it's a dirty book." He clearly had no objection in later life to publication of "racy" material. He never published this book or even admitted that a copy existed. My guess is that he didn't want it published because it was an early work not up to his standards.

Moreover, at the time "I Will Fear No Evil" was published (I thought I remembered that was at the time of his carotid surgery but I am reminded that my memory on that is faulty), Robert was extremely concerned about money, enough so that he allowed "I Will Fear No Evil" to be published unedited, because he was afraid he'd die and Ginny would be stuck with bills and insufficient income. He told me at that time that he thought "Fear No Evil" needed a good editing and considerable cutting, but he didn't have time to do that, so it would have to go out as it was. I infer from this that Robert would have submitted this newly found novel for publication at that time -- by then "racy" wasn't a bar to publication -- if he had wanted it published at all. He didn't.

I didn't talk to Ginny her last few months. I much regret that. I did talk to neighbors and people who saw her, but she didn't seem much up for phone calls. We exchanged emails about piracy and such matters until a couple of weeks before she died. She never mentioned the "discovery" of a book by Robert with annotations by Leslyn (the second Mrs. Heinlein; Ginny was his third wife). Thus I have no way of knowing what she thought of its publication; but if I had to guess, I'd say she would not have approved.

It is also my understanding that he mined this work for scenes, and I am pretty sure that alone would have made him reluctant to publish it.

On the other hand, Robert was pretty mercenary about writing. "We're professional gamblers" he used to say, and "we sing for our supper and those who pay call the tunes" and stuff like that. So it may well be that he would be amused at all this, and it's not entirely beyond reason that he even arranged it on the theory that this old unsalable book might make a good bit of money after he was dead.

Iraq and the Bill

Does anyone know why we cannot immediately increase Iraqi oil production? What are the bottlenecks if we decide to go all out to do that?

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