View 299 March 1

THE VIEW FROM CHAOS MANOR

View 299 March 1 - 7, 2005

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Gary Utter, RIP

This is a day book. It's not all that well edited. I try to keep this up daily, but sometimes I can't. I'll keep trying. See also the monthly COMPUTING AT CHAOS MANOR column, 4,000 - 7,000 words, depending. (Older columns here.) For more on what this page is about, please go to the VIEW PAGE. If you have never read the explanatory material on that page, please do so. If you got here through a link that didn't take you to the front page of this site, click here for a better explanation of what we're trying to do here.

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Monday March 1, 2004

As usual there was activity in view and mail over the weekend.

I put in part of yesterday looking at Star Wars Galaxies (well, I do review games) and it doesn't seem to have changed from my first look: it has good scenery, the interface can be learned (with a little difficulty, but it's not bad), some of the art work is very nice, most of the background seems well designed, but there aren't any people. As a multi-player game it's not so hot because I couldn't find other players. Maybe it is the server I choose.

If anyone knows of a server that has people on it, and a place to start where there might be people, please let me know, and I'll look there. It's impossible to judge the value of a multi-player game when it has to be played solo.

Now it's off to breakfast. It's column time, I have some great ideas for a novel that has been beating its way around in my head for some time, and it's blooking time to finish Mamelukes and get that out the door.

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Tuesday, March 2, 2004

Column Time. Trouble with a machine: put in new power supply and all it does now is scream! Cables loose probably. Sigh.

There's a lot of mail and I will get to it shortly.

California elections today. One proposition makes it easier for the legislature to raise taxes. Be afraid.

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Wednesday, March 3, 2004

I was busy with stuff. Sorry.

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Thursday, March 4, 2004

Life consumes my time, mostly yesterday eaten by locusts. Roberta wasn't feeling well yesterday so we took only a very short walk. Sable got back at us by shredding about a ton of newspapers. So last night I took her out for a couple of miles, which is good for both of us. Huskies have a will of their own...

Today we did the full mile and a half we usually do, so maybe she'll behave. Maybe. When you live with a wolf, you have to understand, we may be alpha but she's still a wolf with a mind of her own...

The Martha Stewart case drags on. Jury still out. I learned this from it: don't ever talk to government investigators about anything. Insist on full 5th Amendment rights. They seem to have charged her with lying when she said she did not do something they then did not charge her with doing. Cooperating with those people is clearly dangerous, and a silly thing to do. She wasn't even under oath. They have redefines perjury: it's maiastas with a different name. Contempt of government. But we were born free.

And clearly I ought to have been denouncing Hannity...

http://www.techcentralstation.com/030404E.html

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Gary UTTER, RIP

I didn't know him well; we only knew each other on line. For a while he was paid a pittance by Genie to manage my Genie conferences for me, and he was splendid; he had the knack of determining what I wanted and doing that even if he didn't agree.

I didn't know him well, but he was a good friend for a decade and more. And the last mail I got from him was addressed to "Boss" as if he still worked for me, which, in a way, he did, finding things that would be interesting and answering questions I should have asked, particularly about Macs which he understood better than me.

I will miss him.

There is a brief tribute and biography at http://www.deanesmay.com/archives/006467.html

Requiem aeternam dona defunctis, Domine, et lux peretua luceat
eis cum sanctis tuis in aeternum Domine; quia pius es. Amen

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Friday, March 5, 2004

Grinding on column.

Well, the Martha Stewart verdict is in, and the conclusion I draw from it is that if you talk to government investigators and cooperate in any way, you are an idiot.

It used to be that perjury consisted of lying under oath. You might have a social obligation to be truthful, but legally if you didn't swear to it, you could say just about anything you wanted, including to the government. It used to be that you signed documents warranting that what you said was true "under penalty of perjury." Now, apparently, it doesn't matter if you're sworn, if you are talking to an Imperial Storm Trooper -- excuse me, government agent -- you can be prosecuted for not telling the truth, even if what you are doing is trying to prevent embarrassment.

For heaven's sake if you have some stock and your broker tells you that the owner of the company is selling in a panic, what would you do? Hang on to it? And if the owner is an old friend, you might well concoct some other reason for selling. It wasn't illegal to sell it anyway. But, clearly, the thing to do if the government asks you for cooperation now, is to have a total lapse of memory, and always assert your Fifth Amendment rights to boot. To heck with cooperation! You don't remember and if you did remember you might incriminate yourself. Go to blazes.

When I was a lad, it wasn't that way, and people thought they had a civic duty to help the government. After all, it was our government, not "the" government, and government people were us, not them. That's a myth increasingly hard to sustain, and I am not at all sure we are better for the change.

What's that you wanted to know? Sorry don't remember, and if I did remember it might incriminate me to talk about it. Please go now.

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Saturday, March 6, 2004

Column time with a vengeance...

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Sunday, March 7, 2004

Finishing the column.

The LA Marathon was "won" by a woman. Of course she had an enormous head start. Next I suppose we will have child-bearing contests. I am not sure how to handicap that so that a man can "win".

The Adelphia cable modem went out about 9 PM and I had to change to the satellite system. It should be all right in the morning. Should be.

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