| Monday
October 25, 2004 My column today boasts
of how interesting my mail is, and of course this is the time when there has
not been so much.
Almost no mail over
weekend due to wedding of Alex and Dana Pournelle. Start with something new:
an interesting article from slate, if you can get over
the predictable/eye-roll inducing backslapping about how leftists are really
the true family values champions...
http://slate.msn.com/id/2108556/
the interesting thing, to me, is just how many of the
scientist types I know are "do as i do, not as I say" types...which is the
inverse of the "do as I say, not as I do" profile described in the article.
that is, if you say something negative about single
mothers or inner cities or lesser institutions or whatnot, they will jump on
you for "elitism" and "lack of compassion".
but in practice they are all about 2 parent families,
scrimping and saving, working 80 hour weeks, living in safe neighborhoods.
And of course they are enormously competitive when it comes to publication
and institutions and whatnot.
In short, a cynic would think they might be out to
handicap the competition...they reserve judgment and scorn not for bad
behavior, but for *criticisms* of bad behavior. The one who is considered a
bad person is not the irresponsible single mother, but the "reactionary" who
thinks that might not be a good idea and says so.
i guess it's hypocrisy, but an interesting kind..."do
as I do, not as I say".
xx
An interesting observation. I need to
think on this.
Subject: cindy adams
Dr. Pournelle,
A gossip columnist for the post is not exactly my
source for airline industry news...
Here's a little sample of her more relevant column
work.
"And Sean Combs' nifty mom Janice, whom I met as a
blonde, turned up as a redhead. I said: "Hey, Janice, change your wig?"
whereupon her friend for some reason hollered at me: "That isn't cool. You
don't say that. Apologize." I would've apologized, but I didn't know what
for. Janice only said sweetly: "Everybody makes a change." "
As a matter of fact, I think I'm actually more
stupider now after reading one of her columns. See, I can't even
grammaritize right anymore.
Sean Long
Aaarrggh
Subject: More on Social Security and Ponzi Schemes...
It may be of interest to you and your readers that
Panama's Social Security system is where ours will be in about 2030 if
predictions hold out on our system. It is essentially bankrupt this year,
income is less than expenditures.
I was down in Panama recently and spoke to my good
friend Rafael Atencio who works for their "CSS" system. He told me that they
are going to have to do two things at once because none of their
administrations would touch the system or offer any solution (their most
recent government under Mireya Moscoso was characterized by corruption and
government officials getting wealthy on the taxpayer.
The refusal of their government to fix things is very
similar to ours. Neither major political party has offered a solution that
stands the test of an Excel spreadsheet (never mind your S-100 system with
Basic -- my first calculation tool was VisiCalc, unless you want to include
the timecode (used in television) calculator I wrote in Basic on a Radio
Shack TRS80 Model 100 that I used for work -- but that didn't do much for
Ponzi scheme calculation.
Panama's solution will be pretty draconian if you
consider the receipt of payment a promise by a government. First, their CSS
payments will be cut. Second, they are raising the number of years that one
must pay into the system. Their system used to be a fifteen year system,
where, if you paid in for fifteen years, you could draw a pension once you
reached a certain age (I think 60). They will go to a 20-year pay-in.
Most companies that have pensions these days insist on
a 20-year pay-in, so this seems reasonable. Except Panamanians in a lot of
areas just don't have regular work where an employer can pay in to their CSS
system. There are areas in real poverty and a laborer is doing well to get
fifteen years of coffee picking before he begins to not be able to keep up
with the younger workers.
Their system is different from ours in that the money
actually goes into a credit account and the government does not touch it,
save to borrow from it and add what it borrows back along with interest. And
interest rates in Panama are higher than those in the US.
Another system I know about is that of Singapore and
it's another actual savings plan. This fits in with the Asian mindset, to
squirrel away money all one's life so that one may be able to live well in
old age and/or pass along an inheritance. This is covered in Lee Kwan Yu's
autobiography. It is not a "pay as you go" plan like ours as far as I am
able to determine. Money may be withdrawn from their system for the purchase
of a home (down payment) or for retirement. The government pays for
disability through the same system but that comes from the government's
voted line item for that means.
Clinton's idea of running up a large budget surplus
might have helped. It would not have solved the problem, though, only held
it off for a few years. Had the US not routinely used the Social Security
fund to balance its books from the 1960s through the 1990s (until Clinton's
surplus), there might have been something put away for this oncoming
generation were it invested at 3 to 5% interest and that interest was
compounded. But that would be treating it like a pension fund.
My older sister is disabled. She waited until she was
50 to claim disability and it was granted. She has a very rare disease
called "adult onset mitochondrial disease. It is a distrophy and her entire
nervous system is slowly degenerating. My mother is retired and has
leukemia. My father is retired and is doing well. But my family is a net
loss for the Social Security system as, with five children there are four
paying in while three collect. I don't think either of my parents really
have to have the monthly check were it not for the cost of insurance -- my
sister does.
So if you look at the big picture, somehow the cost of
healthcare (or insurance) needs to be decreased along with a means test for
social security recipients or we're headed for trouble. Bush's proposal for
savings accounts with catastrophic insurance doesn't work. The
high-deductible insurance costs as much in New York, New Jersey and
Connecticut as regular $20 co-pay insurance costs when bought in a group.
That's no savings -- it's a gold mine for insurance companies. Perhaps
things are different where you are.
Sincerely, -Mark Hollis Editor, NBC News
I wonder why politicians are the only
people in the world who do not understand that the demand for a free but
valuable good is nearly infinite?
Subject: Deconstructed Derrida
It is not often that an obituary <
http://www.economist.com/people/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3308320 > hits
the bullseye *and* makes me laugh, but this one sure did.
On the earthly departure of Jacques Derrida, quoth the
Economist:"The inventor of “deconstruction”—an ill-defined habit of
dismantling texts by revealing their assumptions and contradictions—was
indeed, and unfortunately, one of the most cited modern scholars in the
humanities."
The obit ends, "In his final years he became
increasingly concerned with religion, and some theologians started to show
interest in his work. God help them."
Amen, Brethern & Sistern!
Rod McFadden
Pascal's wager? Derrida the
repentant...
===
AND NOW AN
IMPORTANT WARNING FOR LINUX USERS!!!
WARNING: READ THE ENTIRE MESSAGE
BEFORE ACTING
PHISHING ALERT
WARNING! Danger, Will Robinson.
The below message showed up on the Linuxgazette.net
TAG list this evening. This is NOT a legitimate alert, nor is it a
legitimate patch. BAD THINGS will happen if you follow the instructions in
the email. This is the first major phishing expedition I've seen against
Linux.
Going to the site specified has it still up at this
point. I'll be sending a message to abuse@yahoo.com in a moment, since this
site is hosted by yahoo... The whois record shows a real name and address
... this starts to feel like a joe-job.
Be warned. The people LIKELY to be fooled by a message
like this are new Linux users, and especially new Linux admins, recently
migrated over from their MSCE-ness.
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [TAG] RedHat: Buffer Overflow in "ls" and "mkdir"
Date: Sun, 24 Oct 2004 17:48:34 -0500 From: RedHat Security Team <security@redhat.com>
Reply-To: security@redhat.com, The Answer Gang <tag@linuxgazette.net>
To: tag@linuxgazette.net
Original issue date: October 20, 2004 Last
revised: October 20, 2004 Source: RedHat
A complete revision history is at the end of
this file.
Dear RedHat user,
Redhat found a vulnerability in fileutils (ls
and mkdir), that could allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code
with root privileges. Some of the affected linux distributions include
RedHat 7.2, RedHat 7.3, RedHat 8.0, RedHat 9.0, Fedora CORE 1, Fedora CORE 2
and not only. It is known that *BSD and Solaris platforms are NOT affected.
The RedHat Security Team strongly advises you
to immediately apply the* fileutils-1.0.6 patch*. This is a
critical-critical update that you must make by following these steps:
* First download the patch from the Security
RedHat mirror: */wget www.fedora-redhat.com/fileutils-1.0.6.patch.tar.gz/* *
Untar the patch:/* tar zxvf fileutils-1.0.6.patch.tar.gz*/ * /*cd
fileutils-1.0.6.patch*/ * /*make*/ * /*./inst*/
Again, please apply this patch as soon as
possible or you risk your system and others` to be compromised.
Thank you for your prompt attention to this
serious matter,
RedHat Security Team.
Copyright © 2004 Red Hat, Inc. All rights
reserved.
-- Brian Bilbrey :
http://www.orbdesigns.com/
... maybe they can't be called "volunteers" any more
if somebody ends up being silly enough to pay them for something they'd have
done for free anyway. - Linus in the Seattle Times
============
Subject: "Your papers please" down at the local mall
Hi,
Fortune Magazine has just run a story showing how
drivers licenses and the Internet are being used to track "bad" customers
who return too much merchandise at clothing stores. Here is a link to the
Fortune article:
Sorry, Your Return Is No Good Here
http://www.fortune.com/fortune/print/0,15935,710662,00.html
Here's how the system works:
http://www.returnexchange.com/about/index.asp
Our signature product, Verify-1, utilizes an ASP model
to provide return authorization services that are initiated by either a
VeriFone or similar type platform on a retailer's POS system. A driver's
license or state I.D. card is swiped through these devices to initiate a
product return, and similar to credit card or check verification, the data
is transmitted to The Return Exchange's host server for an approval for
return authorization. We detect fraud through utilization of deterministic
rules, statistical models and a shared return information database.
Missing from the Web site is any brag list of
customers and names and bios of management personnel of the company. Looks
like the company values its privacy. ---------------------------------------
Best, jer
======
Subject: Papers, please.
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5415111.html
-- Roland Dobbins
======
To add to the mix about outsourcing...
A person where I work recently ordered a Hitachi LCD
Projecter
When the box arrived, it said Hitachi, Japan...
assembled in China... even the Japanese are outsourcing to China!
John Thomas Smith http://www.direct2usales.com http://www.pacifier.com/~jtsmith
===========
The Black Watch Regiment and the Guardian newspaper.
Jerry,
The Guardian, or Grauniad newspaper, as it is known
after the spelling of one of its mastheads, started a campaign to get its
readers in the UK to write to voters in the USA urging them to vote for
Kerry. I know what my reaction to this astonishing insolence would be if an
American newspaper launched a similar campaign here in the UK. It would be a
common phrase or saying containing the words, "monkey", and "nuts".
An insurgent leader in Iraq is reported to have said
that he is preparing "a hellish reception" for the Black Watch. Although the
American forces and ordinary Iraquis will find these soldiers competent,
helpful, and courteous, the insurgents might want to reflect that they are
known throughout the British Army as the poison dwarves, and that there are
good reasons for this.
Regards John Edwards
I do not think I would care to anger
the Black Watch. And perhaps you can rent us a couple of regiments of
Gurkhas?
Subject: ASAT, anyone?
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/milspace-04zc.html
-- Roland Dobbins
Reversible and irreversible actions...
Subject: An open letter. [to the New York Times]
http://www.syncro.org/Okrent_Open_Letter.html
-- Roland Dobbins
On Norton Problems
Most of the problems I have had with Norton's involved
regedit.
You didn't edit your registry, recently, did you?
Both my machine and my Dad's had almost total Norton
"remove and re-install" scenarios when the registry was editted (and THAT is
also a project: re-installing when Nortons doesn't want to be re-installed.
It takes a complete procedure and some special software from the Norton web
site)
Dave
We will see. I got to the Norton tech
guy just after 4PM and he had apparently gone home. Tomorrow maybe.
d
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