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.
If you are not paying for this place, click here...
If
you have no idea what you are doing here, see the What is this
place?,
which tries to make order of chaos.
If you intend to send MAIL to me, see
the INSTRUCTIONS.
Boiler Plate:
If you want to PAY FOR THIS there
are problems, but I keep the latest HERE. I'm trying. MY
THANKS to all of you who sent money. Some of you went to a lot of
trouble to send money from overseas. Thank you! There are also some new payment methods. I am preparing a special (electronic)
mailing to all those who paid: there will be a couple of these. I am also
toying with the notion of a subscriber section of the page. LET ME KNOW your thoughts.
.
The June column is done, finally.
It runs about 11,500 words. And I was up until 5 AM Saturday night, and 3 AM
last night, so I have some sleep coming...
Goodbye, Mr. President.
They are bringing the catafalque from the Capitol, where it
stays in the empty tomb intended for George Washington. The drums will be
muffled, and the troops will be in slow step. Most of the soldiers won't
have served under him. And I suppose most Americans won't know just how much
he did for the world.
When I was young, the notion that Communism would just sort
of vanish, and the USSR would come apart without death throes that might
destroy half the world was no more than science fiction. Yet it happened,
and I cannot think who could have brought it off other than Ronald Reagan.
I have installed Windows XP Service Pack 2 Release
Candidate 1 on this system, and I now recommend it for all systems that
communicate with the Internet. Clearly if you have critical problems don't
do it, and you will want to read the Microsoft warnings. It is a release
candidate which means it is not yet fully released.
The column is on
the wire along with pictures. Now to get ready to go to Jacksonville Florida
this weekend where Niven and I are Guests of Honor at a convention.
I note that Ray Bradbury is still steamed, as well he might be:
I am often asked to revise some of my
review pages and such that have fallen out of use. I think I will start a
Page or section where I list various products I current use and continue to
recommend. It wouldn't talk much about stuff I don't have direct experience
with.
This can would include computer products, and I'll
revise it at monthly or better intervals.
Is this a good
idea? Will more of you subscribe
if I do that? (Clearly if this brings in a number of subscriptions
instantly I'll go do it in the next couple of days.)
It won't
cut into fiction time. Sometimes, like today, I have a couple of days before
I have to make a trip, with the first two days of the week eaten by
deadlines and errands, and I'll use that time: since I am not going to go
get new stuff, and this isn't a reviews page, it shouldn't take all that
long to set up and keep up.
If this seems like a good -- or
bad -- idea, send mail with the word recommend as subject. Or subscribe and
mention it...
Subscribers know how to get their opinions of
this to me...
==========
I heard the
suggestion today that they ought to bring President Reagan home by train, as
they did Lincoln. I thought it a good idea but my wife pointed out how hard
it would be on Nancy as two weeks or more went by.
In
California the crowds keep going to the Library, and Washington DC prepares
a state funeral.
Cleaning up from getting the column done.
Shipped off the copy edited maps for Burning Tower.
Tomorrow, not too early, we set out for Jacksonville Florida for a
convention, so today will be spent making preparations for being away
from my desk for so long. Any time left over I'll put here.
There's yet another phishing scam: this one looks like an official e-bay
notice and is more sophisticated than most. Once again, never respond to
such things,. Don't send off your user name and password or credit card
number, just as you don't give people financial information over the
telephone, until you have absolutely verified that you are dealing with
people who (1) wouldn't already know the information and (2) are authorized
to receive it. In particular, you don't send someone confidential
information to "verify" it; not without a lot more negotiation than a simple
request and assurance that this isn't a scam, you don't.
But you knew that. Now spread the word.
Yesterday a reader asked if there is a way to use a router if you're on
dialup. I had to think on that one. We used to use the Rebel NetWinder,
which was a small Linux box that served as a router and security firewall,
before we got cable modem, but that may be more than was wanted, and I am
not sure what Rebel's status is. The NetWinder sure was a good little box.
But Eric points out that most routers now have a serial port, and you can
attach an external modem to that, and thus isolate a dial-up link from the
Internet; and since we have personal knowledge of machines infected over
dialup, this seems like a good idea. Before anyone panics, though, I point
out that the over-dialup infection happened on a machine that hadn't
installed security updates available even as it was being infected, and
there are even later patches; I know of no very recent dialup incidents.
And I had better get back to work.
I will be catching an airplane in the morning. I'll try to update this
site over the weekend, but I don't guarantee anything.
We are in Jacksonville. It's a combination
convention, media and artists and musicians as well as science fiction
people, and there are three other conventions in the hotel.
It is going better than most first time conventions go.
I have not seen the TV series Firefly, but one of the actresses for the
series is here, and she's very nice, and I'll have to get the DVD's. Joss
Wheedon is making a movie using the characters and story line. That is being
filmed now. I wish them well.
The hotel has "free high speed Internet" but at
8 last night they turned off the ability to send. ITT says that's to prevent
spammers. The result is that I have no way to send email. I suppose I can
use mail2web for anything vital.
Of course there was no warning. Just suddenly I noticed in my INBOX a
number of system administrator messages that said that "some" of the mail
was not delivered to intended recipients. "Some" turns out to be all. Thus
when I get access to mail I will have to resend all those that gof blocked.
For a while I thought this was a problem with my system or perhaps with
Service Pack 2 and its firewall, since neither the hotel nor ITT gave any
warning that their "service" isn't. The "high speed" was never very high to
begin with. Now it doesn't go out at all.
I cannot recommend Adams Mark hotels, which seem to be trying but don't
have their act together.
Anyway, if you send me email, do not expect an answer until Monday night
when I am home.
==============
Later today I'll go listen to a panel featuring Cory Doctorow on Fair
Use. That may be interesting.
I think I have been to enough conventions. Airplanes are no longer fun,
and conventions seems increasingly bogged down in rules and regulations and
details. It's time to go write some more. The real world isn't so much fun
as it used to be. Maybe my own worlds can be better.
And maybe I just didn't digest my dinner as well as I should have.
================================
I'm told by one friend that Firefly is awful, and deserved cancellation.
Sigh. The young actress is very nice. She was describing being handed a huge
machinegun which was so heavy she could hardly lift it. This was in the
green room. Soon others came in.
Then I was sitting at a big table with a half dozen 25 year old
actresses, mostly secondary characters in Buffy or Angel or both.
Perfect conditioning, well groomed, poised -- and looking for work,
now selling the opportunity to get your photograph taken with one or another
of them. Friends tell me that 25 is over the hill in small screen in
Hollywood, and few go from small screen to big screen where the longevity
may be longer. Even Buffy herself seems to be looking for work. I have
watched Hollywood eat kids alive for 30 years, and it looks to continue.
This convention is mostly media oriented, which I hadn't known. There are
few books for sale here. I wonder if all conventions are headed this way,
kids in punk costumes, everything media oriented. We'll see what kind of
discussion happens with Doctorow in an hour or so. And see
below.
====================
Well I cannot connect to my web site, so I guess we have had it. The
Adams Mark Hotel can't do communications. Why should it.
Avoid this chain if being connected means anything to you. If you see
this before Monday it will be because I have used dialup. Jacksonville
itself seems to be deep in an Internet well, but the hotel service is the
main problem. We'll try Earthlink dialup later.
So: I cannot send email, and I cannot connect to ftp any longer. Probably
for my convenience.
Trace complete.
===============================
It's working now. Apparently there was a massive power spike that took my
web host off line. That wasn't the Adams Mark's fault. But I can't email out
and that is the hotel.
Dear Dr. Pournelle,
I realize that tastes differ, and I'm sure that your
friend's judgment is impeccable, but in this case you might be wise to check
out at least an episode or two of Firefly before passing it over. It
certainly isn't traditional science fiction, but it is well done and
entertaining, in my opinion.
Thanks, Jerry Boyd
Enough. I'll get a couple of episodes if only to see the young lady in
action. She was quite charming.
I have ordered the DVD. We will see. Mail is running 3:1 for Firefly. I
am urged to watch the episodes in the proper order. And see
below.
I still cannot answer email unless I use dialup and there is nothing so
urgent that it needs that. I'll be home Monday.
The tall ships are in Jacksonville for the weekend. This is the USCG
training ship Eagle.
I don't want to sound negative. The convention is fun. But this "high
speed Internet service" from the hotel is horrible. It is slow and
unreliable, and I really can't send much in the way of pictures this way, so
that part will have to wait until I get home. Just changing directories when
on ftp to my web site takes a long time and I am never sure it will do it
properly. Uploading pictures takes longer, and again, I can never be sure it
will be done properly.
Tracing route to jerrypournelle.com [207.44.178.102]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 993 ms 913 ms 902 ms 65.207.157.129
2 * 932 ms 883 ms Loopback0.GW2.JAX1.ALTER.NET [137.39.5.35]
3 * 873 ms 851 ms 153.at-0-0-0.CL2.JAX1.ALTER.NET [152.63.84.30]
4 923 ms 999 ms * 0.so-0-0-0.TL2.ATL5.ALTER.NET [152.63.10.106]
5 * 976 ms 799 ms 0.so-5-3-0.TL2.CHI2.ALTER.NET [152.63.13.42]
6 849 ms 979 ms 933 ms 0.so-7-0-0.XL2.CHI2.ALTER.NET [152.63.68.90]
7 990 ms 742 ms * 0.so-7-1-0.BR6.CHI2.ALTER.NET [152.63.64.57]
8 1027 ms * 947 ms 204.255.174.158
9 981 ms 989 ms 999 ms p12-0.core02.ord01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.2.
241]
10 1016 ms 883 ms * p12-0.core01.mci01.atlas.cogentco.com [66.28.4.3
3]
11 * 1023 ms 911 ms p5-0.core02.dfw01.atlas.cogentco.com [66.28.4.37
]
12 * 731 ms * p15-0.core01.dfw01.atlas.cogentco.com [66.28.4.2
5]
13 892 ms 949 ms * p13-0.core01.iah01.atlas.cogentco.com [66.28.4.9
8]
14 1003 ms 875 ms 821 ms EveryonesInternet.demarc.cogentco.com [38.112.12
.178]
15 * 835 ms 983 ms ivhou-207-218-223-122.ev1.net [207.218.223.122]
16 * 887 ms 1004 ms zidane.mazin.net [207.44.178.102]
Trace complete.
==============================
There was the best fireworks display I have seen in years last night.
They used a barge in the river for the launch site. It lasted 14 minutes,
and we had a perfect vantage point. The guest party was loud. Both Marvin
Wolfman and I have problems with hearing individual voices in a crowd, but
we can hear each other, and of course Niven is used to my problems, so that
all worked out. A nice dinner and a party afterwards. More when I have more
reliable connections.
=====================
Enough on Firefly! I have ordered the DVD. Mail is running about 3:1 in
favor of it, provided that one watches the episodes in the proper order as
opposed to the order in which the network presented them. I have ordered it,
it will be at home Tuesday, and we will see. And see below:
Thin convention is pretty well over and everyone is going home, but we
won't be out of here until o-dark-thirty tomorrow. The "free high speed
internet connection" system will not handle outgoing mail, in theory to
prevent outgoing spam, which must really make business travelers happy. I
cannot recommend the Adams Mark hotels for people who need communications.
Otherwise it is a pretty good hotel as hotels go. It may be that some of the
convention attendees abused the system Friday? Outgoing mail worked until
about 8PM Friday then was turned off. No one will talk about why.
Cory Doctorow
Corey Doctorow was here, and I wanted to have a talk with him because if
what I think I heard at his panel was correct, I am pretty sure we disagree
about intellectual property. His speaking style is one of entire
self-assurance, as if there can be no doubt of what he is saying, but he
speaks so quickly and on so many subjects, that it is not always easy -- at
least for me -- to graps his exact points or what he thinks ought to be
done. He seems to be coming across as an "information wants to be free" as
in beer advocate. If that is not what he wants, then I misunderstood, which
could be his fault or mine. And see
tomorrow's view.
Once again, it's painful to send pictures and larger files because the
hotel's "high speed Internet" isn't working very well (and doesn't do
outbound mail at all). But this is a nice one.
Jewel Staite, aka Kaylee the ship's mechanic in Firefly, at the pro
party, talking with illustrator Arne Starr. Jewel and some of the Buffy
girls -- Amy and Harmony in this case -- come to these conventions when they
aren't working. I live in the Hollywood area as do they but I never meet
them except in places like Jacksonville, Florida. It's one reason I go to
these conventions, to meet people who live half a mile away...
CLICK HERE for
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