Have you ever received an e-mail with a blank subject line? Of course you have; everyone has. If you are like me, you want a way to provide a meaningful subject line both to identify the contents of the message and to help search for that message in the future whenever the need arises. Unfortunately, users of Mozilla's Thunderbird e-mail client cannot directly edit the subject line with the base program alone.
There is a Thunderbird add-on called TB Header Tools Extension that apparently used to work well in older versions of Thunderbird. Regrettably, it is no longer maintained, having been last updated in July 2005. As a result, it no longer works with any recent version of Thunderbird. Other developers have revised the original extension, but those unofficial versions are not supported by Mozilla, and they reportedly work in some cases but not others. I therefore generally steer clear of those unreliable, unofficial add-ons.
In the course of Googling this topic, I stumbled upon one interesting suggestion that did seem to hold promise at first blush. The writer's suggestion was encouragingly simple: copy the message to the Draft folder, then edit the message to change the subject line, save the change, and move the message back to its original folder.
That method appeared to work: it did succeed in changing the subject line. However, it also changed the sender's name to that of the mailbox owner (namely, me) instead of the original/actual sender, and it also overwrote the original time and date with the time and date of the edited change. If I were to later search for messages from the original sender, the e-mail in question would no longer even appear. Thus, this method does more harm than good.
Even though that approach ultimately failed, it did set me to thinking. I already have a marvelous add-on called ImportExportTools that is fully supported by Mozilla and is actively maintained. As its name implies, it allows users to export and import individual messages to and from the .eml file format. The beauty of this solution is that users can edit .eml files with any basic text editor. With this add-on, it becomes a simple matter to export the message, open the saved message in a text editor, type the desired new subject line, save the newly edited file to the same .eml format, and import back into Thunderbird.
Eureka! The subject line of the imported message now reads as I intended, and the message still reflects the original sender and date/time stamp.
So now whenever anybody tells you "Don't change the subject!" you can blithely ignore them and change the subject to your heart's content.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Microsoft Wireless Woes
I recently encountered a problem with Microsoft's wireless network connection. After buying a Toshiba laptop with Windows 7 for my own use, I gave my older Dell laptop with Windows XP to my son. The problem: the Windows wireless network connection on the XP machine worked only with my administrative account. It totally failed to connect when my children logged on under their limited accounts.
Whenever they clicked on the Windows network icon in the system tray, the expected listing of the available wireless networks that I saw in my admin account failed to materialize. Instead, the following message would appear: "Windows cannot configure this wireless connection."
I navigated to the control panel's wireless networks connection properties, selected the Advanced tab, and checked the box marked "Allow other network users to connect through this computer's Internet connection." Still no luck.
I scoured Google for hours searching for solutions from other folks who had encountered the same problem. Some people suggested converting the limited accounts to admin accounts, but I refuse to do that for my two pre-teenage children: there's no telling what kind of mischief that would create. Others recommended uninstalling and re-installing the operating system, but that was way too radical for my taste. Other respondents recommended scrapping the current modem and purchasing a modem from a different manufacturer, another impractical solution. In short, I found no useful suggestions that I was willing to apply.
In sheer frustration, I continued to poke around my son's machine. Eventually, I stumbled on the fact that Dell had installed an Intel wireless network connection. It had not been readily apparent to me because the system tray icon was marked as "Always hide" and therefore was invisible to me. I suspect that I myself hid it when I first bought the machine in an effort to reduce the clutter in the system tray from all of the crapware that Dell installs on its machines.
While logged on under my own limited account, I unhid the Intel wireless icon and clicked on it out of sheer desperation more than anything else. Eureka! Much to my surprise and delight, the list of available wireless networks appeared as if by magic, including our own home network. I repeated the process on my son's limited account and successfully connected to the internet in the same way: by using Intel's connection rather than Microsoft's. My son has been a happy camper ever since.
As it turns out, I much prefer the Intel user interface anyway. In the main window, it lists only those networks that are currently within range. It also permits users to save wireless networks that they have previously accessed as separate profiles with meaningful names (for example, "motel@NewarkDE") for later use.
The Windows interface, on the other hand, lists all computers accessed in the past in the main window as if they were still within range even when those networks are hundreds of miles away and no longer accessible! For example, every Thanksgiving we travel to my sister's house in Pennsylvania, and Windows continues to list the wireless network connection to our public library 250 miles away in Richmond, Virginia. How silly is that?
Furthermore, the reported signal strength with Intel is much more believable than Windows. My son's wireless notebook is less than 30 feet from our modem, yet the Windows icon reports signal strength as "Low" whereas Intel reports it as a far more credible "Excellent."
There are at least two lessons illustrated by this experience. The first is to be wary of well-meaning but sometimes misguided on-line technical support "gurus." Be skeptical of extreme remedies like re-installing your operating system from scratch or buying replacement hardware. More often than not, there will be a simpler, more straight-forward solution to your problem. In my case, the answer turned out to be very close at hand. You might have to keep digging and consult with a variety different knowledgeable sources before you eventually stumble on a satisfactory method to fix the immediate problem.
The second observation from this episode involves Microsoft and the quality of its products. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, we now have yet another case in a steadily growing list of examples where Microsoft produces an application for its own operating system that is markedly inferior to products of other vendors. You would think that as the originator of the operating system, Microsoft would have a distinct advantage in creating useful applications for that O/S. In reality, quite the opposite is true: for reasons I cannot begin to fathom, Microsoft continually squanders its advantage and instead wallows in mediocrity.
As my favorite philosopher Yogi Berra once stated, "If you come to a fork in the road, take it." In this case, if you come to a fork in the road with at least one branch leading away from Microsoft, by all means take it. Chances are favorable that you be happier with the non-Microsoft option.
One final note on the history and origins of wireless technology:
After digging to a depth of 100 meters last year, Japanese scientists found traces of copper wire dating back 1000 years and came to the conclusion that their ancestors already had a telephone network one thousand years ago.
Not to be outdone in the weeks that followed, Chinese scientists dug 200 meters and headlines in the Chinese papers read: "Chinese scientists have found traces of 2000 year old optical fibers and have concluded that their ancestors already had advanced high-tech digital telephone 1000 years earlier than the Japanese."
One week later, the Greek newspapers reported the following: "After digging as deep as 800 meters, Greek scientists have found absolutely nothing." They have concluded that 3000 years ago, their ancestors were already using wireless technology.
Whenever they clicked on the Windows network icon in the system tray, the expected listing of the available wireless networks that I saw in my admin account failed to materialize. Instead, the following message would appear: "Windows cannot configure this wireless connection."
I navigated to the control panel's wireless networks connection properties, selected the Advanced tab, and checked the box marked "Allow other network users to connect through this computer's Internet connection." Still no luck.
I scoured Google for hours searching for solutions from other folks who had encountered the same problem. Some people suggested converting the limited accounts to admin accounts, but I refuse to do that for my two pre-teenage children: there's no telling what kind of mischief that would create. Others recommended uninstalling and re-installing the operating system, but that was way too radical for my taste. Other respondents recommended scrapping the current modem and purchasing a modem from a different manufacturer, another impractical solution. In short, I found no useful suggestions that I was willing to apply.
In sheer frustration, I continued to poke around my son's machine. Eventually, I stumbled on the fact that Dell had installed an Intel wireless network connection. It had not been readily apparent to me because the system tray icon was marked as "Always hide" and therefore was invisible to me. I suspect that I myself hid it when I first bought the machine in an effort to reduce the clutter in the system tray from all of the crapware that Dell installs on its machines.
While logged on under my own limited account, I unhid the Intel wireless icon and clicked on it out of sheer desperation more than anything else. Eureka! Much to my surprise and delight, the list of available wireless networks appeared as if by magic, including our own home network. I repeated the process on my son's limited account and successfully connected to the internet in the same way: by using Intel's connection rather than Microsoft's. My son has been a happy camper ever since.
As it turns out, I much prefer the Intel user interface anyway. In the main window, it lists only those networks that are currently within range. It also permits users to save wireless networks that they have previously accessed as separate profiles with meaningful names (for example, "motel@NewarkDE") for later use.
The Windows interface, on the other hand, lists all computers accessed in the past in the main window as if they were still within range even when those networks are hundreds of miles away and no longer accessible! For example, every Thanksgiving we travel to my sister's house in Pennsylvania, and Windows continues to list the wireless network connection to our public library 250 miles away in Richmond, Virginia. How silly is that?
Furthermore, the reported signal strength with Intel is much more believable than Windows. My son's wireless notebook is less than 30 feet from our modem, yet the Windows icon reports signal strength as "Low" whereas Intel reports it as a far more credible "Excellent."
Lessons Learned
There are at least two lessons illustrated by this experience. The first is to be wary of well-meaning but sometimes misguided on-line technical support "gurus." Be skeptical of extreme remedies like re-installing your operating system from scratch or buying replacement hardware. More often than not, there will be a simpler, more straight-forward solution to your problem. In my case, the answer turned out to be very close at hand. You might have to keep digging and consult with a variety different knowledgeable sources before you eventually stumble on a satisfactory method to fix the immediate problem.
The second observation from this episode involves Microsoft and the quality of its products. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, we now have yet another case in a steadily growing list of examples where Microsoft produces an application for its own operating system that is markedly inferior to products of other vendors. You would think that as the originator of the operating system, Microsoft would have a distinct advantage in creating useful applications for that O/S. In reality, quite the opposite is true: for reasons I cannot begin to fathom, Microsoft continually squanders its advantage and instead wallows in mediocrity.
As my favorite philosopher Yogi Berra once stated, "If you come to a fork in the road, take it." In this case, if you come to a fork in the road with at least one branch leading away from Microsoft, by all means take it. Chances are favorable that you be happier with the non-Microsoft option.
One final note on the history and origins of wireless technology:
After digging to a depth of 100 meters last year, Japanese scientists found traces of copper wire dating back 1000 years and came to the conclusion that their ancestors already had a telephone network one thousand years ago.
Not to be outdone in the weeks that followed, Chinese scientists dug 200 meters and headlines in the Chinese papers read: "Chinese scientists have found traces of 2000 year old optical fibers and have concluded that their ancestors already had advanced high-tech digital telephone 1000 years earlier than the Japanese."
One week later, the Greek newspapers reported the following: "After digging as deep as 800 meters, Greek scientists have found absolutely nothing." They have concluded that 3000 years ago, their ancestors were already using wireless technology.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Windows 7 - An Exercise in Futility (Or: More Questions Than Answers)
Wrestling with Windows 7 is sometimes as futile as bungee jumping without a cord. Nowhere is this more apparent than dealing with the logon default screen. The two primary elements involved are the default logon wallpaper (well, excuuse me: background) and the default logon screensaver. Let's consider each one in turn:
My new Toshiba laptop allows the following screen resolutions:
It is a well-established fact that Windows 7 does not allow different users to retain different screen resolutions. If I log on and set my resolution to 1280x720, the next user who logs on after me will initially inherit that same resolution. If that second miscreant changes the resolution to 1680x945 for his or her session, then I in turn will encounter that new resolution when I log on afterward (much to the dismay of my 20-400 vision). The primary users of my new Toshiba—my two children and myself—all use the 1280x720 resolution. However, after any one of us logs off, Windows 7 unexpectedly reverts instead to the image I designated for 1360x768 (i.e., file "background1360x768.jpg") as the default background for the logon screen.
Clearly, a different default resolution is at work. That raises the obvious question: how does an administrator change the default resolution of the logon screen? I spent the better part of two hours per day for three straight days Googling this question with absolutely no meaningful results. Surely someone knows the definitive answer, but I have yet to encounter that person. If anyone reading this entry can shed any light on the subject, by all means add a comment to this blog. I will be forever grateful—with all the rights and privileges that entails.
[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop]
The error message with PicSaver (to the effect that it could not find any image files) led me to suspect that for some reason the configuration file was not being read properly. PicSaver stores user configuration information in an external file "C:\Windows\PicSaver.ini" while JpegSaver stores its configuration data in file "C:\Users\[user name]\AppData\Local\jpegsaver.cfg" where the user's name appears in place of [user name].
Because I created the files when logged on as administrator, I suspected a possible permissions problem. My hypothesis postulated that the default screensaver might operate with the limited privileges of the standard user and would therefore conflict with the admin only privileges inherited by the configuration files I created as administrator. Consequently, I attempted to revise the permissions of the configuration files with the intention of allowing all users full read and execute (but not write) privileges.
I first tried to edit the PicSaver.ini file using my trusty 32-bit file manager, 2xExplorer. I was able to edit the file contents just fine, but I could not change the user privileges. When I switched to the 64-bit Windows Explorer, much to my astonishment, I could not even see the PicSaver.ini file that I just edited in my 32-bit file manager!
I then turned my attention to the JpegSaver configuration files. I could see and edit those files with 64-bit Windows Explorer as well as 16-bit 2xExplorer, and I could even change the permissions using Windows Explorer. Unfortunately, adding users and then giving users read and execute privileges still did not succeed in displaying JpegSaver wallpaper images. In fact, I saw only a black screen without so much as an error message.
In light of these failures, I tried a different approach. An absolutely fantastic image viewer/editor called IrfanView allows users to create image slideshows and save them as a self-contained executable (file type .exe) or screensaver (file type .scr) file. By self-contained, I mean no dependencies on any external image files whatsoever: the images are embedded within IrfanView's output file. Employing this feature, I created my slide show and saved it as both file formats (.exe and .scr) as test cases. When I entered the names of my slide show files into the registry key SCRNSAVE.EXE discussed above, lo and behold: both files worked perfectly!
I was happy to have at least circumvented the problem even if I did not truly solve it. However, there are at least two mild drawbacks to this technique:
Just further evidence that computers are like air conditioners: they both stop working properly whenever you open windows.
1. Default Logon Background/Wallpaper
- Open the registry editor (regedit.exe)
- Go to key HKEY-LOCAL-MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\Background
- Select the value OEMBackground and change the value data to 1
- Close the registry editor and open Windows Explorer
- If it does not already exist, create a new folder C:\WINDOWS\system32\oobe\info\backgrounds
- Copy the desired JPG image file to the folder, then rename it to "backgroundDefault.jpg"
My new Toshiba laptop allows the following screen resolutions:
| Resolution (in pixels) |
Ratio (width to height) |
|---|---|
| 1680 x 945 | 1.777 |
| 1600 x 900 | 1.777 |
| 1360 x 768 | 1.7708333 |
| 1280 x 800 | 1.600 |
| 1280 x 768 | 1.666 |
| 1280 x 720 | 1.777 |
| 1152 x 864 | 1.333 |
| 1024 x 768 | 1.333 |
| 800 x 600 | 1.333 |
It is a well-established fact that Windows 7 does not allow different users to retain different screen resolutions. If I log on and set my resolution to 1280x720, the next user who logs on after me will initially inherit that same resolution. If that second miscreant changes the resolution to 1680x945 for his or her session, then I in turn will encounter that new resolution when I log on afterward (much to the dismay of my 20-400 vision). The primary users of my new Toshiba—my two children and myself—all use the 1280x720 resolution. However, after any one of us logs off, Windows 7 unexpectedly reverts instead to the image I designated for 1360x768 (i.e., file "background1360x768.jpg") as the default background for the logon screen.
Clearly, a different default resolution is at work. That raises the obvious question: how does an administrator change the default resolution of the logon screen? I spent the better part of two hours per day for three straight days Googling this question with absolutely no meaningful results. Surely someone knows the definitive answer, but I have yet to encounter that person. If anyone reading this entry can shed any light on the subject, by all means add a comment to this blog. I will be forever grateful—with all the rights and privileges that entails.
2. Default Logon Screensaver
[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop]
- "ScreenSaveActive"="1"
- "ScreenSaveTimeOut"="600"
- "SCRNSAVE.EXE"="C:\zBob\scrnsavr\JPEGsaver\JPEGsaver.scr"
...or...
"SCRNSAVE.EXE"="C:\zBob\scrnsavr\picSaver\picSaver.scr"
The error message with PicSaver (to the effect that it could not find any image files) led me to suspect that for some reason the configuration file was not being read properly. PicSaver stores user configuration information in an external file "C:\Windows\PicSaver.ini" while JpegSaver stores its configuration data in file "C:\Users\[user name]\AppData\Local\jpegsaver.cfg" where the user's name appears in place of [user name].
Because I created the files when logged on as administrator, I suspected a possible permissions problem. My hypothesis postulated that the default screensaver might operate with the limited privileges of the standard user and would therefore conflict with the admin only privileges inherited by the configuration files I created as administrator. Consequently, I attempted to revise the permissions of the configuration files with the intention of allowing all users full read and execute (but not write) privileges.
I first tried to edit the PicSaver.ini file using my trusty 32-bit file manager, 2xExplorer. I was able to edit the file contents just fine, but I could not change the user privileges. When I switched to the 64-bit Windows Explorer, much to my astonishment, I could not even see the PicSaver.ini file that I just edited in my 32-bit file manager!
I then turned my attention to the JpegSaver configuration files. I could see and edit those files with 64-bit Windows Explorer as well as 16-bit 2xExplorer, and I could even change the permissions using Windows Explorer. Unfortunately, adding users and then giving users read and execute privileges still did not succeed in displaying JpegSaver wallpaper images. In fact, I saw only a black screen without so much as an error message.
In light of these failures, I tried a different approach. An absolutely fantastic image viewer/editor called IrfanView allows users to create image slideshows and save them as a self-contained executable (file type .exe) or screensaver (file type .scr) file. By self-contained, I mean no dependencies on any external image files whatsoever: the images are embedded within IrfanView's output file. Employing this feature, I created my slide show and saved it as both file formats (.exe and .scr) as test cases. When I entered the names of my slide show files into the registry key SCRNSAVE.EXE discussed above, lo and behold: both files worked perfectly!
I was happy to have at least circumvented the problem even if I did not truly solve it. However, there are at least two mild drawbacks to this technique:
- To stop the slide show, users must click the escape key instead of wiggling the mouse as with a true screen saver
- More importantly, every time I find a new image that I want to add, I must recreate the entire slide show all over again. This process is a stark contrast to the standard screensaver, where the simple act of adding new files to any folder earmarked in the screensaver configuration automatically displays the new images as a matter of course.
Summary
- Why do the two screensaver programs with external configuration files not work as default screensavers in Windows 7, especially when the very same registry entries work so well in Windows XP? Does the problem lie with those external configuration files, or is the real problem something else altogether?
- Why does the all-powerful and all-knowing 64-bit Windows Explorer not even display the one configuration file "C:\Windows\PicSaver.ini" when 32-bit file managers can? Both of my 32-bit file managers, 2xExplorer and FreeCommander, not only display the file in question but also allow me to edit the file contents even if I cannot edit the file permissions.
- How does an administrator control the screen resolution of the default logon screen?
Just further evidence that computers are like air conditioners: they both stop working properly whenever you open windows.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Quick Take - Windows 7
In August 2010, I bought a Toshiba 18-inch laptop with backlit keyboard so that I can see what I'm typing even in a darkened room. So far, I love this computer because is lightning fast both when booting up and shutting down, to say nothing of day-to-day operations. Furthermore, the 18-inch screen is just gorgeous. Leaving it to return to my other 15-inch laptop is like going from a wide picture window to a tiny port hole.
Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your point of view, the machine came with the 64-bit version of Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system. In the first few days and weeks of experimenting with the new O/S, I have been struck by three revelations.
The first issue has no operational effect whatsoever but is mildly amusing nevertheless. It involves some apparent internal classification inconsistencies within Microsoft.
By way of background, I have Norton/Symantec anti-virus and firewall products on all of my older computers. However, I have grown tired of Norton's constant barrage of pop-up windows asking me to approve or disapprove a multitude of transactions. Because the price is right—namely, free—I chose to try Microsoft Security Essentials on my new laptop instead of Norton/Symantec.
This is where the fun begins. It appears that the update tab of Microsoft Security Essentials is totally unreliable. It often says "Up to date" even when the Windows Update panel shows a still-pending definition update! Furthermore, Windows Update classifies modifications to Security Essentials merely as "Optional", not "Important" or even "Recommended." At least the Windows Update module shows the needed update even if it does make a mockery of Microsoft's own title Security Essentials.
To further confuse matters, when I look in the System Restore window immediately after updating Security Essentials, it shows a restore point created in association with a "critical update."
In the strange, bizarre world that is Microsoft, three different elements of Windows 7 (Security Essentials, Windows Update, and System Restore) all assign different categories of importance to the same update. It's almost as if the individual elements of Windows 7 were developed by programmers on different planets.
I have encountered similar disparities in the past with regard to Microsoft Office, where the Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) modules in Access and Excel do not always recognize the same basic commands. These collective disparities create the indelible impression that Microsoft must be a stove-piped organization where different software development teams within the organization do not appear to communicate very well with each other.
The second issue is a minor irritant that makes crystal clear how little regard Microsoft holds for end users. Fifteen years have elapsed since the introduction of Windows 95 which first allowed users to select from among multiple cursor schemes and sound schemes and to even create their own such schemes. That is all well and good. During that time, Microsoft has "progressed" through Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows XP, Windows Vista, and now Windows 7. (I am a home user, so I will deliberately ignore the business-oriented Windows NT and Windows 2000.) However, in those fifteen years and five subsequent major software releases, Microsoft still has not implemented any provision for users to export those settings!
In Windows 7, there are 15 different cursors for users to select within a scheme; for sound schemes, there are 57 events for which to select sounds (30 in Windows, 11 in Windows Explorer, 6 in speech recognition, and 10 in Web Time). After all these years, users must still wrestle with drill-down menus to painstakingly hunt-and-peck for the desired cursor images and sound clips one by one. As an alternative, users may (and I did) scrounge through the registry and manually export relevant registry keys to create a .reg file which can then be executed on another machine. However, that process is just as agonizing as the manual entries.
It is past time for Microsoft to implement a convenient way for users to export these and other setting so that those settings can be easily transferred to and installed on new machines. It is sheer folly to have to re-invent the wheel every time users purchase a new computer.
The third issue is far more important operationally: that of backward compatibility. By that I mean trying to get all of my favorite 32-bit software packages to work in the new 64-bit environment. I have found at least four factors that influence how software will work.
Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your point of view, the machine came with the 64-bit version of Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system. In the first few days and weeks of experimenting with the new O/S, I have been struck by three revelations.
The first issue has no operational effect whatsoever but is mildly amusing nevertheless. It involves some apparent internal classification inconsistencies within Microsoft.
By way of background, I have Norton/Symantec anti-virus and firewall products on all of my older computers. However, I have grown tired of Norton's constant barrage of pop-up windows asking me to approve or disapprove a multitude of transactions. Because the price is right—namely, free—I chose to try Microsoft Security Essentials on my new laptop instead of Norton/Symantec.
This is where the fun begins. It appears that the update tab of Microsoft Security Essentials is totally unreliable. It often says "Up to date" even when the Windows Update panel shows a still-pending definition update! Furthermore, Windows Update classifies modifications to Security Essentials merely as "Optional", not "Important" or even "Recommended." At least the Windows Update module shows the needed update even if it does make a mockery of Microsoft's own title Security Essentials.
To further confuse matters, when I look in the System Restore window immediately after updating Security Essentials, it shows a restore point created in association with a "critical update."
In the strange, bizarre world that is Microsoft, three different elements of Windows 7 (Security Essentials, Windows Update, and System Restore) all assign different categories of importance to the same update. It's almost as if the individual elements of Windows 7 were developed by programmers on different planets.
I have encountered similar disparities in the past with regard to Microsoft Office, where the Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) modules in Access and Excel do not always recognize the same basic commands. These collective disparities create the indelible impression that Microsoft must be a stove-piped organization where different software development teams within the organization do not appear to communicate very well with each other.
The second issue is a minor irritant that makes crystal clear how little regard Microsoft holds for end users. Fifteen years have elapsed since the introduction of Windows 95 which first allowed users to select from among multiple cursor schemes and sound schemes and to even create their own such schemes. That is all well and good. During that time, Microsoft has "progressed" through Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows XP, Windows Vista, and now Windows 7. (I am a home user, so I will deliberately ignore the business-oriented Windows NT and Windows 2000.) However, in those fifteen years and five subsequent major software releases, Microsoft still has not implemented any provision for users to export those settings!
In Windows 7, there are 15 different cursors for users to select within a scheme; for sound schemes, there are 57 events for which to select sounds (30 in Windows, 11 in Windows Explorer, 6 in speech recognition, and 10 in Web Time). After all these years, users must still wrestle with drill-down menus to painstakingly hunt-and-peck for the desired cursor images and sound clips one by one. As an alternative, users may (and I did) scrounge through the registry and manually export relevant registry keys to create a .reg file which can then be executed on another machine. However, that process is just as agonizing as the manual entries.
It is past time for Microsoft to implement a convenient way for users to export these and other setting so that those settings can be easily transferred to and installed on new machines. It is sheer folly to have to re-invent the wheel every time users purchase a new computer.
The third issue is far more important operationally: that of backward compatibility. By that I mean trying to get all of my favorite 32-bit software packages to work in the new 64-bit environment. I have found at least four factors that influence how software will work.
- Is the software written for 64-bit or 32-bit environment? And even when I can find a 64-bit version of my favorite software to replace my original 32-bit version, the 64-bit version still does not always work, possibly because of the next two issues:
- Where is the best place to install software? By default, Windows 7 wants to install 64-bit programs in the folder "C:\Program Files" and 32-bit software in a separate "C:\Program Files (x86)" folder. Of course, all of my favorites were installed in yet another folder of my own designation so that I could more easily copy them to a new computer. Now I have to try each alternative with each program to determine the best location out of the three.
- How best to launch a program? I have two file managers called 2xExplorer and FreeCommander which I refuse to abandon because they have two side-by-side panes that make file management, especially synchronization and backup, an absolute breeze. They are both 32-bit programs, and I am finding that opening a 64-bit program within a 32-bit file manager can sometimes produce quite different results than opening that same program using the 64-bit version of Windows Explorer. Similar problems arise with the converse: opening a 32-bit program in 64-bit Windows Explorer in lieu of my 32-bit file managers.
- Are you running the program as administrator? Be aware that in Windows 7, even if you log on to an administrator account, you do not automatically inherit administrative privileges whenever you launch an executable! To insure that you are running a program as administrator, you might need to right-click on the executable file and select "Run as administrator" from the context menu. This applies not only to applications but also to system files like the command "cmd.exe" that launches the command console.
As an example, I frequently use a marvelous utility by a programmer named Nir Sofer called Registry Scanner, or RegScanner for short. I especially like this program because it provides users the ability to search with a very powerful feature called regular expressions. RegScanner will list all the registry keys that match the search criteria. Users may then double-click on any of the elements displayed. At that time, in a normal 32-bit environment, the Windows registry editor will open for users to edit or even delete the selected registry key. In Windows 7, however, this last feature will work properly if and only if the user has launched RegScanner with the "Run as administrator" menu.
Physician, Heal Thyself
Physicians just do not seem to get it: their business and administrative practices drive customers away more than their medical skills. A few examples from my own life:
Postscript. There is an addendum to my first run-in with Southside Regional Medical Center involving my wife's severe stomach ailment. I strongly suspected that the cause of her illness was a jar of shrimp paste that my wife purchased from a small grocery store in Hopewell, Virginia. I had retained the jar in our refrigerator for later testing.
After we arrived home from the hospital, I called the governmental offices in the city of Colonial Heights where we lived. They directed me to Petersburg as the site of Southside Regional Medical Center where my wife was treated. Petersburg referred me to the city of Hopewell because that is where my wife purchased the suspect product. Hopewell claimed to have no authority to investigate because the contaminated product was not served at a sit-down restaurant.
In the course of speaking to all of the respective city governments, I learned that the only testing laboratory in the region was located in Chesterfield County. When I called that laboratory to ask if they could test our food item for pathogens, they told me I would have to tell them exactly what pathogen to test for. Well, if I knew what the offending organism was, I would not really need them to conduct a test, would I?
So, to all of you radical right-wing Republicans espousing the virtues of smaller government, I say "Hogwash!" The lesson I learned from this experience is that small, local governments can pass the buck and shirk their responsibilities every bit as well as any federal agencies can.
Final Postscript. Now that I have thoroughly castigated the medical community in our area, allow me to step out of my curmudgeonly character to highlight a hospital that does things right. In early August 2010, I underwent hernia surgery at John Randolph Medical Center in Hopewell. While I am still wrestling with the discomfort of the surgery itself, dealing with the administrative folks at John Randolph was a breath of fresh air, especially compared to the dolts at Southside Regional Medical Center.
Statements from the anesthesiologist, the surgeon, and the hospital facility all went to my insurer within a week or two after the surgery. I then received statements of benefits from my insurer followed soon thereafter by final correct invoices from each of the three medical offices, enabling me to settle all three obligations within a month. And best of all, I received no obnoxious inquiries from collection agencies seeking payment for bills already resolved!
It is a sad commentary on the state of American medical companies today that something so routine merits special praise only because it stands out in stark contrast to the fumbling inadequacies of other organizations. In any case, kudos to John Randolph for their swift and efficient administrative process.
I left my former ENT specialist because his office began charging five dollars extra for paying via credit card.
We left our former children's dentist because his office insisted on total payment up front and consistently overcharged us. That forced me into the unwanted role of bill collector, wrestling with the task of collecting our overpayment after each visit. That same office also had the audacity to charge a late fee one time despite the fact that their invoice was dated and mailed two weeks after the supposed payment due date!
- We left our original pediatricians because of their completely unworkable scheduling system. With most physicians, when you are told to come back in x number of weeks, you schedule the next appointment before you leave the office. Not so with those pediatricians. Their scheduling system looked ahead only one month, so if you had to return in six weeks, you had to wait until the following month to even attempt to schedule the appointment. And invariably when we called on the first day of the next month to schedule a visit, somehow the schedule was already full.
In fairness, the scheduling system was inflicted on them by their affiliation with a particular hospital. (I won't mention the hospital's name, but its initials are Southside Regional Medical Center (SRMC) in Petersburg, Virginia; more on them in a moment.)
A year or two after we left, we were amused to received an advertisement in the mail from those same pediatricians touting the fact that they were no longer associated with that hospital—as if to say, "It's safe to return now!"
- One morning in July of 1993, my wife was rushed by ambulance to Southside Regional Medical Center after suffering severe stomach pains and eventually collapsing unconscious at home. My saga began at 6:00 am when we first arrived at the hospital. I was not allowed to accompany my wife into the emergency room's treatment area; indeed, there was an armed guard at the door to block any and all visitors. Furthermore, the hospital's ER personnel declined to provide any information whatsoever regarding her status. Despite my repeated attempts to elicit any tidbit of information, it was not until 11:30 that I was allowed to see her and talk to a doctor about her condition. The hospital staff held me totally incommunicado from my own wife for five-and-a-half hours. Absolutely unconscionable!
- In July 2003, my wife had x-rays taken at SRMC to diagnose a lump on her breast. The radiology department would not or could not deliver the resulting report to my wife's ob-gyn for almost three weeks. Excuses ranged from "Our fax machine broke down" to "We can't find a typist to type the report."
At one point I myself called the radiology department and was told to have my wife appear between the hours of 8:00 and 4:00 on a particular Friday for her to pick up the report herself and personally deliver it to her physician. She showed up in mid-morning as directed only to be told, "Oh, we can't give x-ray reports out to patients."
In short, the fumbling incompetence of the radiology department caused several appointments with her ob-gyn to be postponed. This in turn delayed the eventual surgery, and all the while the threat of possible cancer loomed large.
- As they say on the shopping networks, "But wait: there's more!" On the scheduled day of surgery, after my wife was already heavily sedated and ready to be rolled into the operating room, the surgeon casually dropped in to discuss surgical options. WTF??? That should have been addressed in the three office visits my wife undertook in the weeks prior to surgery. You can bet that when I myself needed surgery seven years later, I studiously avoided any surgical practice with that surgeon as a member.
- Even after the surgery was over, there was still no escaping the bungling ineptitude of Southside Regional Medical Center. They sent me an invoice dated 2 December 2003. I received the invoice in the mail on 8 December and mailed payment on 14 December. My bank received the canceled check on 31 December, so SRMC clearly must have received and deposited the check sometime before the last week of December for the check to have cleared the Federal Reserve banking system by the end of the December.
Despite that, toward the end of January, we received a letter from a collection agency dated 20 January. If SRMC forwarded this account to the collection agency in December, then that is absolutely unreasonable because their invoice was not even prepared until early December, giving us almost no time to respond to the invoice. And if SRMC forwarded the case in January, then the obvious question is why? They already had payment in their possession in December and in fact had already deposited it.
I continued to receive threatening telephone calls both at home and at work through the end of March. The collection agency refused to confirm with its own client that payment had been received, and staff at SRMC steadfastly refused to respond because their accounting was handled by a commercial contractor, not SRMC direct-hire personnel.
In light of SRMC's non-response to numerous telephone calls, my wife even drove to their office in person in an attempt to resolve this problem. Astonishingly, SRMC's response was to blame the entire problem on me for entering the wrong account number in the memo field of my check.
When I heard that, I was irate because SRMC's accusation was totally bogus for two reasons. First, I did not enter the account number on the check. I made no entries in the memo field because I refuse to do SRMC's clerical work for them, and even the most cursory scan of the check revealed that the handwriting in the memo field was clearly not the same as the handwriting on the rest of the check.
Secondly, on behalf of whoever did transcribe the account number onto the memo field, that person transcribed it correctly: the number exactly matches the account number shown on SRMC's invoice. Consequently, any account number error lies with the invoice that SRMC's own people generated.
Postscript. There is an addendum to my first run-in with Southside Regional Medical Center involving my wife's severe stomach ailment. I strongly suspected that the cause of her illness was a jar of shrimp paste that my wife purchased from a small grocery store in Hopewell, Virginia. I had retained the jar in our refrigerator for later testing.
After we arrived home from the hospital, I called the governmental offices in the city of Colonial Heights where we lived. They directed me to Petersburg as the site of Southside Regional Medical Center where my wife was treated. Petersburg referred me to the city of Hopewell because that is where my wife purchased the suspect product. Hopewell claimed to have no authority to investigate because the contaminated product was not served at a sit-down restaurant.
In the course of speaking to all of the respective city governments, I learned that the only testing laboratory in the region was located in Chesterfield County. When I called that laboratory to ask if they could test our food item for pathogens, they told me I would have to tell them exactly what pathogen to test for. Well, if I knew what the offending organism was, I would not really need them to conduct a test, would I?
So, to all of you radical right-wing Republicans espousing the virtues of smaller government, I say "Hogwash!" The lesson I learned from this experience is that small, local governments can pass the buck and shirk their responsibilities every bit as well as any federal agencies can.
Final Postscript. Now that I have thoroughly castigated the medical community in our area, allow me to step out of my curmudgeonly character to highlight a hospital that does things right. In early August 2010, I underwent hernia surgery at John Randolph Medical Center in Hopewell. While I am still wrestling with the discomfort of the surgery itself, dealing with the administrative folks at John Randolph was a breath of fresh air, especially compared to the dolts at Southside Regional Medical Center.
Statements from the anesthesiologist, the surgeon, and the hospital facility all went to my insurer within a week or two after the surgery. I then received statements of benefits from my insurer followed soon thereafter by final correct invoices from each of the three medical offices, enabling me to settle all three obligations within a month. And best of all, I received no obnoxious inquiries from collection agencies seeking payment for bills already resolved!
It is a sad commentary on the state of American medical companies today that something so routine merits special praise only because it stands out in stark contrast to the fumbling inadequacies of other organizations. In any case, kudos to John Randolph for their swift and efficient administrative process.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Microsoft Stumbles Again
It never ceases to amaze me how a company like Microsoft—creator and distributor of Windows, the dominant operating system for personal computers in the world today—continues to produce the poorest, most feeble applications for that same operating system.
The latest Microsoft shortcoming is the Windows DVD Maker. Amazingly, that program ships only on computers with Vista/Windows 7 premium editions or greater. Perhaps that policy is intended to hide Microsoft's embarrassment by withholding it from the majority of users with more basic versions of Windows. It is just difficult for me to imagine how anyone would consider this an enhancement of any kind. Let me explain why.
My wife has a Flip Video Camcorder with 47 videos in mp4 format. She wanted to put those files onto a DVD that can be played on a standard DVD player for viewing on a large-screen television. My new laptop has Windows 7 complete with Windows DVD Maker, so I thought I was all set. However, much to my chagrin, I soon discovered that Windows DVD Maker does not accept mp4 format.
To overcome this shortcoming, I chose one of the larger mp4 files as a test case. I used the free software Pazera Free MP4 to AVI Converter to convert the file to avi format which Windows DVD Maker supposedly does recognize. Sure enough, Windows DVD Maker did convert the video—but it left out the audio portion entirely! A search on Google quickly revealed that this is a common problem: one particular user who tried to process multiple avi files through Windows DVD Maker reported that approximately 40% of his resulting video files had no audio.
Another Google search revealed a life-saver: a free, open source program called DVD Flick. This marvelous program accepts a much wider range of file formats, including both avi and mp4. I then ran both files through DVD Flick for comparison purposes. Lo and behold: both resulting DVDs contained the full audio.
Visually, the avi file seemed more pixelated. I do not know if the avi file lost significant data in the conversion process from mp4 or if avi files are just inherently more pixelated than corresponding mp4 files. That is a secondary concern; what matters most is that DVD Flick radically outperformed Microsoft's lame Windows DVD Maker by recognizing a greater variety of file formats and providing infinitely more reliable audio.
Bottom line: if you are stuck with Windows DVD Maker, do yourself a big favor. Download and install the far more robust and versatile DVD Flick.
You'll be glad you did.
- Any number of free and readily available text editors (e.g., Jarte, Notepad++, and my personal favorite Win32Pad) run rings around Microsoft's minimalistic Notepad and Wordpad.
- Microsoft's imagers (Paint and Windows Picture and Fax Viewer) are similarly bare bones products. They pale in comparison with freeware image editors like FastStone Image Viewer or the fabulous IrfanView.
- The Windows archive (i.e., zip file) handling system is not only featureless but downright annoying. If you do not wish to pay for WinZip, you are still much better off with any one of the freebie archive programs 7-Zip, IZArc, or PeaZip.
- Even Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) web browser lagged years behind Netscape, Opera, and other web browsers in introducing tabbed browsing. I even used the little-known Avant Browser whenever I needed to use IE because it used the same IE engine yet featured tabs long before IE itself did.
The latest Microsoft shortcoming is the Windows DVD Maker. Amazingly, that program ships only on computers with Vista/Windows 7 premium editions or greater. Perhaps that policy is intended to hide Microsoft's embarrassment by withholding it from the majority of users with more basic versions of Windows. It is just difficult for me to imagine how anyone would consider this an enhancement of any kind. Let me explain why.
My wife has a Flip Video Camcorder with 47 videos in mp4 format. She wanted to put those files onto a DVD that can be played on a standard DVD player for viewing on a large-screen television. My new laptop has Windows 7 complete with Windows DVD Maker, so I thought I was all set. However, much to my chagrin, I soon discovered that Windows DVD Maker does not accept mp4 format.
To overcome this shortcoming, I chose one of the larger mp4 files as a test case. I used the free software Pazera Free MP4 to AVI Converter to convert the file to avi format which Windows DVD Maker supposedly does recognize. Sure enough, Windows DVD Maker did convert the video—but it left out the audio portion entirely! A search on Google quickly revealed that this is a common problem: one particular user who tried to process multiple avi files through Windows DVD Maker reported that approximately 40% of his resulting video files had no audio.
Another Google search revealed a life-saver: a free, open source program called DVD Flick. This marvelous program accepts a much wider range of file formats, including both avi and mp4. I then ran both files through DVD Flick for comparison purposes. Lo and behold: both resulting DVDs contained the full audio.
Visually, the avi file seemed more pixelated. I do not know if the avi file lost significant data in the conversion process from mp4 or if avi files are just inherently more pixelated than corresponding mp4 files. That is a secondary concern; what matters most is that DVD Flick radically outperformed Microsoft's lame Windows DVD Maker by recognizing a greater variety of file formats and providing infinitely more reliable audio.
Bottom line: if you are stuck with Windows DVD Maker, do yourself a big favor. Download and install the far more robust and versatile DVD Flick.
You'll be glad you did.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Who Elected You President???
"This is what being president of the United States is all about. It's these tough, huge, monumental decisions… It's in a time of crisis making these executive decisions. It's just like our job… It's the same thing as being president of the United States."
— "Fox and Friends" co-host Gretchen Carlson
Boy, talk about an inflated sense of self-worth!
— "Fox and Friends" co-host Gretchen Carlson
Boy, talk about an inflated sense of self-worth!
Oxymoron: Microsoft Works
Is anyone else irritated by Microsoft's unbridled arrogance? After the latest "in-between" operating system upgrade on Tuesday, 22 June 2010, Microsoft had the unmitigated gall to change my default home page in Internet Explorer from Google search to Microsoft's own Bing search engine. They have no business changing user preferences!
This is not the only instance of Microsoft's audacity:
Unfortunately, Apple and Steve Jobs are just as prententious as Microsoft in their own distinctly offensive way. A pox on both their houses.
Long live Linux/Ubuntu!
This is not the only instance of Microsoft's audacity:
- After almost every second-Tuesday-of-the-month operating system upgrade that includes an update to Outlook, the process changes my default email from Mozilla's Thunderbird to Microsoft's Outlook.
- Long ago and far away, I once made the mistake of setting my default bitmap file association to one of Microsoft's image software packages. I don't remember if it was Paint or the old Photo Editor, but whatever it was, it automatically established itself as the default file association not just for bitmap files but for all other image types as well: .gif, .jpg, .png, and others. I guess Microsoft thinks that if you want their product for one item, you will certainly want it for everything else as well.
Unfortunately, Apple and Steve Jobs are just as prententious as Microsoft in their own distinctly offensive way. A pox on both their houses.
Long live Linux/Ubuntu!
Friday, June 11, 2010
Journalistic Excess
In an article in the 9 June 2010 edition the Chester [Virginia] Village News, sports columnist John Hall wrote the following:
It turns out that Sam Bowie averaged a solid 7.5 rebounds and 10.9 points per game over a ten-year NBA career. Those statistics certainly do not rise to the level of a superstar like Michael Jordan, but they far exceed any reasonable person's definition of a "lottery bust." I would also contend that surviving the rigors of the NBA for ten years hardly qualifies as being "quickly out of basketball."
This is rhetorical excess at best, and shoddy journalism at worst. Mr. Hall's apparent ignorance led him to mistakenly disparage a solid if not spectacular player. Mr. Hall's basic premise—that number 1 draft selections do not always meet expectations—might be correct, but that does not in any way justify denigrating a decent player in such harsh terms.
Mr. Hall has never before come across as a mean-spirited person. In this case, however, he has clearly dropped the ball. Or perhaps he merely stepped out of bounds. Feel free to choose your own sports metaphor.
The NBA is famous for its lottery busts, as well. Sam Bowie was quickly out of basketball, but not before the Portland Trailblazers chose him over the great Michael Jordan in 1984.I was mildly surprised by that example because I vaguely recalled Sam Bowie as a fairly adequate big man for several years, so I looked up his career statistics on Basketball-Reference.com.
It turns out that Sam Bowie averaged a solid 7.5 rebounds and 10.9 points per game over a ten-year NBA career. Those statistics certainly do not rise to the level of a superstar like Michael Jordan, but they far exceed any reasonable person's definition of a "lottery bust." I would also contend that surviving the rigors of the NBA for ten years hardly qualifies as being "quickly out of basketball."
This is rhetorical excess at best, and shoddy journalism at worst. Mr. Hall's apparent ignorance led him to mistakenly disparage a solid if not spectacular player. Mr. Hall's basic premise—that number 1 draft selections do not always meet expectations—might be correct, but that does not in any way justify denigrating a decent player in such harsh terms.
Mr. Hall has never before come across as a mean-spirited person. In this case, however, he has clearly dropped the ball. Or perhaps he merely stepped out of bounds. Feel free to choose your own sports metaphor.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Hard Link Headslapper
Once again, I don't know where I have been lately (I'll resist the urge to say I was out in left field because in my younger days I was actually a good-field-no-hit center fielder), but I just recently discovered the virtues of hard links.
I have long wanted a way to allow my screen saver programs to access selected image files without actually copying those files to a separate folder, a process which would quickly gobble up disk space. For example, in baseball season I might want to include some baseball art, some player action photos, and some stadium scenes in my screen saver. I have folders containing photos of each category, but the photos are of mixed quality. I want to include only the better images. I currently face three unpleasant choices: display all of the images in a folder, including the inferior ones; display none of the images in a folder, thus excluding some outstanding ones; or selectively copy all of the desired files into a separate folder—and waste an inordinate amount disk space with duplicate versions of the same large image files.
I tried creating shortcuts to each specific image and consolidating those shortcuts into a single folder, but to no avail: none of the many screen saver programs I tried seem to recognize shortcuts. No matter: it turns out that hard links are the perfect solution. To make a long story short, use hard file links where you need multiple copies of a file but wish to save disk space by keeping only one physical copy on disk.
In Windows XP, create hard links using the following command line entry:
In Windows Vista and Windows 7, the equivalent command is:
Only then I noticed the "disk free space" value. It had remained unchanged when I created my hard links. As a test, I deleted my newly-created links and instead copied the corresponding files to that same folder. The disk free space declined markedly. Next, I deleted the duplicate files, after which the disk free space increased again back to its original value. Finally, I re-established my hard links. Lo and behold: the disk free space remained the same. That experiment showed clearly that the hard links were in fact not consuming any extra disk space despite initial indications to the contrary.
Beyond that discovery, I found much to my delight that my screen saver program could now successfully read the hard file links where it previously had failed to read shortcuts. Similarly, my image viewer could fully read and edit the hard links in the same manner as if those hard links were the original images. Bingo! Exactly what I wanted.
This is one of those forehead-slapping moments where I find myself thinking, "If I had only known about this years ago!"
I have long wanted a way to allow my screen saver programs to access selected image files without actually copying those files to a separate folder, a process which would quickly gobble up disk space. For example, in baseball season I might want to include some baseball art, some player action photos, and some stadium scenes in my screen saver. I have folders containing photos of each category, but the photos are of mixed quality. I want to include only the better images. I currently face three unpleasant choices: display all of the images in a folder, including the inferior ones; display none of the images in a folder, thus excluding some outstanding ones; or selectively copy all of the desired files into a separate folder—and waste an inordinate amount disk space with duplicate versions of the same large image files.
I tried creating shortcuts to each specific image and consolidating those shortcuts into a single folder, but to no avail: none of the many screen saver programs I tried seem to recognize shortcuts. No matter: it turns out that hard links are the perfect solution. To make a long story short, use hard file links where you need multiple copies of a file but wish to save disk space by keeping only one physical copy on disk.
In Windows XP, create hard links using the following command line entry:
fsutil hardlink create [NewFilename] [ExistingFilename](Click the following link to view Microsoft's own documentation for creating hard links as well as some other uses for the fsutil command line utility.)
In Windows Vista and Windows 7, the equivalent command is:
mklink /H [NewFilename] [ExistingFilename]I admit to being skeptical when I initially created my hard links. In Windows Explorer, the file sizes displayed in bytes for my new links duplicated those of the original files, and the total disk space reported for the folder containing my hard links showed a large number consistent with the sum of those individual figures. It first appeared that I was still consuming duplicate disk space just as if I had copied the files.
Only then I noticed the "disk free space" value. It had remained unchanged when I created my hard links. As a test, I deleted my newly-created links and instead copied the corresponding files to that same folder. The disk free space declined markedly. Next, I deleted the duplicate files, after which the disk free space increased again back to its original value. Finally, I re-established my hard links. Lo and behold: the disk free space remained the same. That experiment showed clearly that the hard links were in fact not consuming any extra disk space despite initial indications to the contrary.
Beyond that discovery, I found much to my delight that my screen saver program could now successfully read the hard file links where it previously had failed to read shortcuts. Similarly, my image viewer could fully read and edit the hard links in the same manner as if those hard links were the original images. Bingo! Exactly what I wanted.
This is one of those forehead-slapping moments where I find myself thinking, "If I had only known about this years ago!"
Begone, Human Element
The world of baseball is still buzzing over the bad call at first base by umpire Jim Joyce that cost pitcher Armando Galarraga of the Detroit Tigers a perfect game on 2 June 2010. We should all commend Mr. Joyce for his forthright honesty in quickly admitting his monumental mistake. Even more noteworthy is the exemplary class and dignity with which Mr. Galarraga responded.
What trips my chain, however, is the reason cited by numerous players and managers to explain why major league baseball (MLB) should not expand instant replay beyond present guidelines (i.e., determining if a fly ball is a home run or not). Almost to a man, they invariably state that the "human element" is an inextricable part of baseball.
Oh, please. Results on the field should be determined by player performance, not officiating blunders. On the day in question, the pitcher was perfect, but the umpire was not. There is no justice in penalizing players for the mistakes of umpires.
If there were a cost-free system that could guarantee correct calls 100% of the time, you can bet that MLB would adopt such a system in a heartbeat, and rightfully so. The human element involving players is indeed unavoidable and sometimes even grimly fascinating. However, the fate of players should not be determined by unrelated external forces like umpiring foibles. The human element with regard to umpiring should be minimized or eliminated altogether whenever possible. Expanded instant replay is a reasonable means to that end.
The only legitimate issue is what price people are willing to pay to make the correct calls, particularly if they might affect the outcome of a playoff or a World Series game. Mr. Joyce has been circumspect in his public statements about leaving it up to the commissioner's office to decide on any rule changes governing instant replay. However, given his obvious distress at having made the wrong call, I strongly suspect that Mr. Joyce would have welcomed the opportunity to pause an additional 60 or 90 seconds to review TV replays and insure the correct call.
You know that Mr. Galarraga would have welcomed that.
What trips my chain, however, is the reason cited by numerous players and managers to explain why major league baseball (MLB) should not expand instant replay beyond present guidelines (i.e., determining if a fly ball is a home run or not). Almost to a man, they invariably state that the "human element" is an inextricable part of baseball.
Oh, please. Results on the field should be determined by player performance, not officiating blunders. On the day in question, the pitcher was perfect, but the umpire was not. There is no justice in penalizing players for the mistakes of umpires.
If there were a cost-free system that could guarantee correct calls 100% of the time, you can bet that MLB would adopt such a system in a heartbeat, and rightfully so. The human element involving players is indeed unavoidable and sometimes even grimly fascinating. However, the fate of players should not be determined by unrelated external forces like umpiring foibles. The human element with regard to umpiring should be minimized or eliminated altogether whenever possible. Expanded instant replay is a reasonable means to that end.
The only legitimate issue is what price people are willing to pay to make the correct calls, particularly if they might affect the outcome of a playoff or a World Series game. Mr. Joyce has been circumspect in his public statements about leaving it up to the commissioner's office to decide on any rule changes governing instant replay. However, given his obvious distress at having made the wrong call, I strongly suspect that Mr. Joyce would have welcomed the opportunity to pause an additional 60 or 90 seconds to review TV replays and insure the correct call.
You know that Mr. Galarraga would have welcomed that.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Mysterious Disappearing Icon
Have you ever been annoyed by the green "Safely Remove Hardware" icon that often disappears from the system tray when you go to disconnect an external USB device? There is a nice way to avoid that frustration by creating your own permanent shortcut that accomplishes the same purpose.
I found the basic idea for this tip offered by a blogger named Raymond. I have embellished his basic concept and fleshed it out a little bit.
If your green "Safely Remove Hardware" continues to disappear from your system tray even if you have it marked as "Always show" in your customized taskbar properties, then try the following steps:
One final tip: when you double-click on the shortcut to open it, be sure to check the "Display device components" box in the lower left corner. That will provide amplifying information to make an informed choice about which device to close. Otherwise, you might be stuck with multiple entries all reading "USB Mass Storage Device", making it impossible to distinguish which entry represents a large external USB hard drive and which entry indicates a small USB thumb drive.
Presto! Simply by activating this shortcut, you can now easily invoke the "Safely Remove Hardware" process even without the icon in your system tray.
I found the basic idea for this tip offered by a blogger named Raymond. I have embellished his basic concept and fleshed it out a little bit.
If your green "Safely Remove Hardware" continues to disappear from your system tray even if you have it marked as "Always show" in your customized taskbar properties, then try the following steps:
- Create a dummy shortcut (for example, copying an existing shortcut to your desktop).
- Right click on the shortcut and select the "Properties" menu option at the very bottom
- Select the "General" tab
- In the field at the top, type in some meaningful title like "Safely Remove Hardware"
- Next, select the "Shortcut" tab
- In the shortcut's "Target:" field, type the following *CaSe SeNsItIvE* entry:
rundll32 shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL hotplug.dll - In the "Start in:" field, enter "C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\" (without the quotations)
- Optional: In the "Comment:" field, add a descriptive comment something like:
Use when Safely Remove Hardware icon does not appear in system tray - Optional: Set the green icon by clicking the "Change Icon..." button and
into the field at the top, copy and paste the following:
%SystemRoot%\SYSTEM32\hotplug.dll - Click the "OK" button at the bottom to save your work.
- Move or copy the new shortcut to your desktop, start menu, quick launch menu, or any other preferred location
One final tip: when you double-click on the shortcut to open it, be sure to check the "Display device components" box in the lower left corner. That will provide amplifying information to make an informed choice about which device to close. Otherwise, you might be stuck with multiple entries all reading "USB Mass Storage Device", making it impossible to distinguish which entry represents a large external USB hard drive and which entry indicates a small USB thumb drive.
Presto! Simply by activating this shortcut, you can now easily invoke the "Safely Remove Hardware" process even without the icon in your system tray.
Saturday, May 22, 2010
For Geeks Only: Favicons
Where have I been? Out in the ozone, I guess. I recently discovered four facts about creating a web page that only geeky webmasters could appreciate:
Regardless of coding technique, the real problem remains: finding images that retain any clarity of meaning when reduced to the required miniscule size of 16 x 16 pixels. Good luck with that.
- Favicons need not be named "favicon" (or more accurately, "favicon.ico")
- Favicons need not be placed in the same folder as the html page that invokes it
- Sub-pages need not have the same favicon as the parent page; similarly, …
- Individual frame pages can have their own separate and distinct favicon
Regardless of coding technique, the real problem remains: finding images that retain any clarity of meaning when reduced to the required miniscule size of 16 x 16 pixels. Good luck with that.
Distress
I can't see an end. I have no control, and I don't think there's any escape. I don't even have a home anymore.
Yes, it's definitely time for a new keyboard.
Yes, it's definitely time for a new keyboard.
Quotations in the News
Be careful what you wish for:
"Glenn's like the high school government teacher so many wish they'd had."
-- Sarah Palin
"Please, America, take this man for what he says.…Read Mein Kampf."
-- Glenn Beck on Obama
"Is this where we're headed?"
-- Beck, showing photos of Hitler, Stalin and Lenin
Who in their right mind ever wished they'd had a radical, right-wing emotional basket case for their high school government teacher???
In over his head:
"It's a relatively small leak compared to the volume of water in the Gulf.… Come on, this is America, there will be frivolous lawsuits."
-- BP CEO Tony Hayward
As Fox News anchor Shep Smith admonished, "At least act like you care."
Tone deaf:
"When do we ask the Sierra Club to pick up the tab for this leak? Everybody's focused on BP and Halliburton and Transocean.…The greeniacs have been driving our oil producers off the land."
-- Rush Limbaugh
Wasn't Rush supposed to move to Costa Rica? Whenever he goes, it won't be soon enough.
Real Americans:
"[Elena Kagan has] no clue how real Americans live."
-- Rush Limbaugh
And the loudmouth blowhard Rush Limbaugh certainly does, what with his 37-million-dollar-per-year salary and his 13-million-dollar New York City penthouse. On second thought, he has been married and divorced three times (family values, anyone?) and was addicted to prescription drugs (after speaking forcefully on his show that drug abusers should be sent to jail, no less), so maybe he does share a common bond after all.
Source for all quotations: Doonesbury@Slate - Daily Dose dated 15-20 May 2010
"Glenn's like the high school government teacher so many wish they'd had."
-- Sarah Palin
"Please, America, take this man for what he says.…Read Mein Kampf."
-- Glenn Beck on Obama
"Is this where we're headed?"
-- Beck, showing photos of Hitler, Stalin and Lenin
Who in their right mind ever wished they'd had a radical, right-wing emotional basket case for their high school government teacher???
In over his head:
"It's a relatively small leak compared to the volume of water in the Gulf.… Come on, this is America, there will be frivolous lawsuits."
-- BP CEO Tony Hayward
As Fox News anchor Shep Smith admonished, "At least act like you care."
Tone deaf:
"When do we ask the Sierra Club to pick up the tab for this leak? Everybody's focused on BP and Halliburton and Transocean.…The greeniacs have been driving our oil producers off the land."
-- Rush Limbaugh
Wasn't Rush supposed to move to Costa Rica? Whenever he goes, it won't be soon enough.
Real Americans:
"[Elena Kagan has] no clue how real Americans live."
-- Rush Limbaugh
And the loudmouth blowhard Rush Limbaugh certainly does, what with his 37-million-dollar-per-year salary and his 13-million-dollar New York City penthouse. On second thought, he has been married and divorced three times (family values, anyone?) and was addicted to prescription drugs (after speaking forcefully on his show that drug abusers should be sent to jail, no less), so maybe he does share a common bond after all.
Source for all quotations: Doonesbury@Slate - Daily Dose dated 15-20 May 2010
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Making the Grade, Part Deux
In the interest of fairness and full disclosure, here are Wesley's grades for the school year to date in the same manner that I posted Heather's grades a few days ago:
I consider Wesley's first marking period "C" in English as an indictment more of his teacher than of Wesley or his performance. Wesley's middle school has an on-line reporting system where teachers are required to post grades every two weeks, and parents can then log on to monitor the child's progress. That system also allows teachers to post all class assignments, but teachers are not required to do so. Regrettably, Wesley's English teacher steadfastly refused to utilize that feature.
I should point out that his English teacher was not his only teacher who declined to post class assignments to the on-line site. His other teachers, though, had relatively straightforward daily assignments with an occasional project thrown in periodically.
English class was a different story. Wes had to juggle three weekly assignments due on Fridays: a vocabulary list for which he had to look up definitions, synonyms, antonyms, and etymology; a composition complete with first draft, second draft, and final draft; and answering a series of questions from a reading assignment. In addition, during each 9-week grading period, he had to complete any four projects out of nine possible choices. All four assignment types (vocabulary, composition, questions, and projects) were extracted from different scattered sections of booklets called a Partner Discussion Guide (PDG) that accompanied each book the class was assigned to read. [Much to our chagrin, we did not discover one additional unpublicized complication until later: once the class moved on to a new book/PDG, students could no longer submit projects relating to any previous book.]
Unfortunately, little of this information was made clear to Wesley, and none of it at all was communicated to me—that is, not until a knock-down, drag-out, face-to-face meeting I had with his teacher, the vice-principal, and the principal himself at the end of the first marking period. That meeting became necessary after a frequent but futile exchange of e-mails in which I repeatedly requested that assignments be posted on-line so that I as his parent could monitor Wesley's compliance.
Alas, all of this was to no avail: even after our meeting, the teacher still never posted assignments on-line in any meaningful way. However, the meeting did at least provide enough insight so that I—and more importantly, Wesley—could better determine his exact weekly and quarterly (project) assignments. From that point forward, Wesley was able to do the work and do it well, as his English grades in the second and third marking periods will attest.
I find it particularly ironic that such a marked failure in communications occurred with an English teacher, of all subjects. And I am not Don Quixote: I will not joust with windmills indefinitely. The only reason I pounded my head against the wall for as long as I did is that it feels so good when I stop.
| Subject | P1 | P2 | P3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | C | A | A |
| Mathematics | B+ | A | B+ |
| Health/Phys Ed | A+ | A+ | A |
| Social Studies | A | B+ | |
| Science | A | ||
| Computer Tech | A | ||
| Wood Shop | A+ | ||
| Art | A |
I consider Wesley's first marking period "C" in English as an indictment more of his teacher than of Wesley or his performance. Wesley's middle school has an on-line reporting system where teachers are required to post grades every two weeks, and parents can then log on to monitor the child's progress. That system also allows teachers to post all class assignments, but teachers are not required to do so. Regrettably, Wesley's English teacher steadfastly refused to utilize that feature.
I should point out that his English teacher was not his only teacher who declined to post class assignments to the on-line site. His other teachers, though, had relatively straightforward daily assignments with an occasional project thrown in periodically.
English class was a different story. Wes had to juggle three weekly assignments due on Fridays: a vocabulary list for which he had to look up definitions, synonyms, antonyms, and etymology; a composition complete with first draft, second draft, and final draft; and answering a series of questions from a reading assignment. In addition, during each 9-week grading period, he had to complete any four projects out of nine possible choices. All four assignment types (vocabulary, composition, questions, and projects) were extracted from different scattered sections of booklets called a Partner Discussion Guide (PDG) that accompanied each book the class was assigned to read. [Much to our chagrin, we did not discover one additional unpublicized complication until later: once the class moved on to a new book/PDG, students could no longer submit projects relating to any previous book.]
Unfortunately, little of this information was made clear to Wesley, and none of it at all was communicated to me—that is, not until a knock-down, drag-out, face-to-face meeting I had with his teacher, the vice-principal, and the principal himself at the end of the first marking period. That meeting became necessary after a frequent but futile exchange of e-mails in which I repeatedly requested that assignments be posted on-line so that I as his parent could monitor Wesley's compliance.
Alas, all of this was to no avail: even after our meeting, the teacher still never posted assignments on-line in any meaningful way. However, the meeting did at least provide enough insight so that I—and more importantly, Wesley—could better determine his exact weekly and quarterly (project) assignments. From that point forward, Wesley was able to do the work and do it well, as his English grades in the second and third marking periods will attest.
I find it particularly ironic that such a marked failure in communications occurred with an English teacher, of all subjects. And I am not Don Quixote: I will not joust with windmills indefinitely. The only reason I pounded my head against the wall for as long as I did is that it feels so good when I stop.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Double Play: Baseball Classic & Pop Psychology
I do not usually take kindly to blog sites that fill their pages with a virtually unlimited quantity of really large photos. Those sites take seemingly forever to load, so I almost always bypass them. However, I am departing from my usual practice of no photos for this one singular exception.
I stumbled on this marvelous rare photo of a young Henry Aaron at bat in an empty stadium. It is exceptional not only because of the subject (my favorite athlete of all time, along with Sandy Koufax) but because it is an electronic color image rare for that era (the late 1950s or early 1960s) and because the original image is large enough (4117 x 4077 pixels) to crop for an exact fit to any possible computer screen dimension. I have collected over 1,200 baseball wallpaper images and over 19,000 wallpaper images overall, but this became my instant favorite. That is why I chose to post it — that, and because I was looking for an excuse to see how both Wordpress and Blogger handle imported images.
By the way, those of you who know our family history might think that I became a fan of both the Milwaukee Braves/Milwaukee Brewers and the Green Bay Packers because we lived in Madison, Wisconsin for over three years when I was a youngster. Well, you would be wrong.
The real reason is much simpler. Soon after we moved to our first apartment in Wilmington, Delaware, I walked into the living room one day to discover my father watching a baseball game on television. Now, my father almost never watched baseball on TV, so I asked him who was playing. It so happened that he was watching either the 1957 or 1958 World Series between the New York Yankees and the Milwaukee Braves. I then asked for whom he was rooting, and he — a native New Yorker born in the Bronx — naturally answered,
Fittingly enough, the same thing happened three or four years later. I again walked through the living room one day when lo and behold: I encountered my father watching a football game on TV. I was even more surprised this time because my father watched football even less often than he watched baseball. On this occasion, he was watching the 1961 NFL championship game between the New York Giants and the Green Bay Packers. I again asked for whom he was rooting, and he naturally replied,
So, for all of you amateur psychologists out there, have fun with this one...
I stumbled on this marvelous rare photo of a young Henry Aaron at bat in an empty stadium. It is exceptional not only because of the subject (my favorite athlete of all time, along with Sandy Koufax) but because it is an electronic color image rare for that era (the late 1950s or early 1960s) and because the original image is large enough (4117 x 4077 pixels) to crop for an exact fit to any possible computer screen dimension. I have collected over 1,200 baseball wallpaper images and over 19,000 wallpaper images overall, but this became my instant favorite. That is why I chose to post it — that, and because I was looking for an excuse to see how both Wordpress and Blogger handle imported images.
By the way, those of you who know our family history might think that I became a fan of both the Milwaukee Braves/Milwaukee Brewers and the Green Bay Packers because we lived in Madison, Wisconsin for over three years when I was a youngster. Well, you would be wrong.
The real reason is much simpler. Soon after we moved to our first apartment in Wilmington, Delaware, I walked into the living room one day to discover my father watching a baseball game on television. Now, my father almost never watched baseball on TV, so I asked him who was playing. It so happened that he was watching either the 1957 or 1958 World Series between the New York Yankees and the Milwaukee Braves. I then asked for whom he was rooting, and he — a native New Yorker born in the Bronx — naturally answered,
The Yankees.Contrarian that I was, even at that young age (and, of course, still am today), I became an instant fan of the Milwaukee Braves. I shudder to think what would have happened had the Yankees been playing, say, the Chicago Cubs!
Fittingly enough, the same thing happened three or four years later. I again walked through the living room one day when lo and behold: I encountered my father watching a football game on TV. I was even more surprised this time because my father watched football even less often than he watched baseball. On this occasion, he was watching the 1961 NFL championship game between the New York Giants and the Green Bay Packers. I again asked for whom he was rooting, and he naturally replied,
The Giants.Voilà! I instantly became a Green Bay Packers fan. Once again, the possibility that under different circumstances I might have become a Chicago Bears fan makes be nauseous even to contemplate.
So, for all of you amateur psychologists out there, have fun with this one...
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Making the Grade
Fourth-grader Heather brought home her report card for the third marking period on Friday. Her grades for the year to date are as follows:
| Subject | P1 | P2 | P3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reading/Literature | B | A | A |
| Writing | A | A | A |
| Word Study | A | A | A |
| Mathematics | B | B | A |
| Science | B | B | A |
| Social Studies | B | A | B |
| Art | E | E | E |
| Music | E | E | E |
| Phys Ed | E | E | E |
| Work/Study Skills | E | E | E |
| Reading/Literature | E | E | E |
As frustrating as it was to see her miss straight A's just because of social studies, as a former mathematician I was pleased to see her finally get her first "A" in math (and science, too). I tease Heather and Wesley both by insisting that math is the only subject that really "counts." Their standard retort is that science is the only subject that really "matters."
Oxymoronic
The term
Recently, the U.S. Postal Service announced that it would cut Saturday delivery beginning in the first half of next year (2011). I say,
In fact, I am trying to eliminate the post office from my life altogether. A few years ago, my magazine subscriptions were arriving ridiculously late every week. I confirmed that the magazine publishers were sending their periodicals out in a timely manner: I would stop by our local library to verify that they had the current issue, but days—and sometimes a full week or more—would pass before I would receive my copy. It turns out that our local mail carrier was sorting mail by house number only, completely ignoring the street, neighborhood, and family names. As a result, our mail was frequently misdelivered to another house with the same street number but with totally different street and family names in a completely different neighborhood. And of course, several times a week we would receive mail that was intended for that family.
When I originally reported my problems to our local post office, the supervisor told me that the postal service would take action only if I failed to receive my subscriptions for four consecutive weeks! Late delivery was not worth investigating, nor apparently was non-receipt for one, two, or three weeks.
In response to that inept delivery service and unresponsive management, I eventually allowed all of my periodical subscriptions to expire. In addition, I now pay almost all of my bills electronically via the internet so that I no longer have to rely on home postal delivery. I still occasionally have to mail bill payments to some of the smaller companies we deal with who do not have an internet presence (e.g., family physician, dentist, and trash collector), but I am able to pay the vast majority of regular, recurring bills on-line (water, gas, electricity, local telephone, long distance telephone, and credit cards).
Furthermore, to save additional money, I encourage the postal service to close as many facilities as they want. I cannot even remember the last time I visited a post office. I now buy a book of stamps about once every 18 months or so, and even then I buy it at Wal-Mart along with my groceries, not at a post office. And, of course, to mail packages, there is always Federal Express or UPS.
And all of that still does not go far enough. I heartily favor do-not-mail legislation that would prohibit delivery of unwanted second class (read "junk") mail to everyone who registers just like the current do-not-call law prohibits unsolicited marketing telephone calls. Yes, the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) offers a similar service, but that applies only to DMA members who voluntarily comply, does not carry the force of law, and is therefore just not good enough. Amazingly, only about 12 states have even attempted to pass such legislation, and none have succeeded.
On its web site, the DMA pleads,
[Postscript: In fairness to the post office, I should note that our old mail carrier has died, and our new carrier sorts mail by family name, not street number. Our family name is uncommon enough that I am confident that we are the only family with that surname on our mail carrier's entire route. Indeed, the occurrence of misdelivered letters to our house has virtually stopped altogether. On the other hand, we have families named Edwards and Williams living further down the street who might not be so enamored with the new system.]
postal servicehas become an oxymoron along the lines of military intelligence, congressional ethics, rap music, and Microsoft Works.
Recently, the U.S. Postal Service announced that it would cut Saturday delivery beginning in the first half of next year (2011). I say,
Why stop there?I accept that businesses might require more frequent delivery than residential customers, but I would not mind if home delivery were reduced to three days per week (Monday-Wednesday-Friday or Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday) or even two days per week (Monday-Thursday or Tuesday-Friday).
In fact, I am trying to eliminate the post office from my life altogether. A few years ago, my magazine subscriptions were arriving ridiculously late every week. I confirmed that the magazine publishers were sending their periodicals out in a timely manner: I would stop by our local library to verify that they had the current issue, but days—and sometimes a full week or more—would pass before I would receive my copy. It turns out that our local mail carrier was sorting mail by house number only, completely ignoring the street, neighborhood, and family names. As a result, our mail was frequently misdelivered to another house with the same street number but with totally different street and family names in a completely different neighborhood. And of course, several times a week we would receive mail that was intended for that family.
When I originally reported my problems to our local post office, the supervisor told me that the postal service would take action only if I failed to receive my subscriptions for four consecutive weeks! Late delivery was not worth investigating, nor apparently was non-receipt for one, two, or three weeks.
In response to that inept delivery service and unresponsive management, I eventually allowed all of my periodical subscriptions to expire. In addition, I now pay almost all of my bills electronically via the internet so that I no longer have to rely on home postal delivery. I still occasionally have to mail bill payments to some of the smaller companies we deal with who do not have an internet presence (e.g., family physician, dentist, and trash collector), but I am able to pay the vast majority of regular, recurring bills on-line (water, gas, electricity, local telephone, long distance telephone, and credit cards).
Furthermore, to save additional money, I encourage the postal service to close as many facilities as they want. I cannot even remember the last time I visited a post office. I now buy a book of stamps about once every 18 months or so, and even then I buy it at Wal-Mart along with my groceries, not at a post office. And, of course, to mail packages, there is always Federal Express or UPS.
And all of that still does not go far enough. I heartily favor do-not-mail legislation that would prohibit delivery of unwanted second class (read "junk") mail to everyone who registers just like the current do-not-call law prohibits unsolicited marketing telephone calls. Yes, the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) offers a similar service, but that applies only to DMA members who voluntarily comply, does not carry the force of law, and is therefore just not good enough. Amazingly, only about 12 states have even attempted to pass such legislation, and none have succeeded.
On its web site, the DMA pleads,
We need your...commitment to this fight to keep the mail channel open.Gag me with the proverbial spoon!
[Postscript: In fairness to the post office, I should note that our old mail carrier has died, and our new carrier sorts mail by family name, not street number. Our family name is uncommon enough that I am confident that we are the only family with that surname on our mail carrier's entire route. Indeed, the occurrence of misdelivered letters to our house has virtually stopped altogether. On the other hand, we have families named Edwards and Williams living further down the street who might not be so enamored with the new system.]
Richard Dawkins Revisited
In response to my earlier posting about Richard Dawkins, I received a comment from one reader that I initially relegated to the trash bin. Upon further reflection, however, I decided that it merits a response.
The reader Jonolan wrote:
Well, how's that for a tolerant, enlightened attitude? Atheists (and presumably agnostics, too) should be denied a forum, and anyone who provides them with one cannot be a true human. The reader does not state his own religious preference, but no matter: I remain wary of anyone who wears their religion on their sleeve.
In any case, spare me your sanctimonious righteousness, dear reader. Ardent religionists have perpetrated as much evil as any other class of miscreant. From the Crusades to the Inquisition to the Protestant-Catholic strife in Northern Ireland to Al-Qaeda, religious extremism has wreaked havoc throughout history. We in the United States are certainly not exempt: the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nation, and misguided individuals like Timothy McVeigh all claimed to be
I never cease to be amazed at the arrogance of religious zealots who maintain that their particular religion has a monopoly on truth and—by extension—virtue, and that all non-believers should therefore be silenced or—better yet—eliminated altogether.
On second thought, maybe I do share that last sentiment after all: perhaps intolerant extremists of all types should be (in no particular order) keelhauled, drawn-and-quartered, hanged, and shot. As Jon Lovitz so famously said on Saturday Night Live,
The reader Jonolan wrote:
Dawkins is one of the Godless; why would any true human allow it [sic] a public forum?
Well, how's that for a tolerant, enlightened attitude? Atheists (and presumably agnostics, too) should be denied a forum, and anyone who provides them with one cannot be a true human. The reader does not state his own religious preference, but no matter: I remain wary of anyone who wears their religion on their sleeve.
In any case, spare me your sanctimonious righteousness, dear reader. Ardent religionists have perpetrated as much evil as any other class of miscreant. From the Crusades to the Inquisition to the Protestant-Catholic strife in Northern Ireland to Al-Qaeda, religious extremism has wreaked havoc throughout history. We in the United States are certainly not exempt: the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nation, and misguided individuals like Timothy McVeigh all claimed to be
doing God's work.What hogwash. I would much prefer to deal with the likes of Richard Dawkins or Sam Harris any day.
I never cease to be amazed at the arrogance of religious zealots who maintain that their particular religion has a monopoly on truth and—by extension—virtue, and that all non-believers should therefore be silenced or—better yet—eliminated altogether.
On second thought, maybe I do share that last sentiment after all: perhaps intolerant extremists of all types should be (in no particular order) keelhauled, drawn-and-quartered, hanged, and shot. As Jon Lovitz so famously said on Saturday Night Live,
Yeah! That's the ticket!
Richard Dawkins on Pope Benedict XVI
The following interview with Richard Dawkins took place on 28 March 2010:
Should Pope Benedict XVI be held responsible for the escalating scandals over clerical sexual abuse in Europe?
Should he be investigated for how cases of abuse were handled under his watch as archbishop of Munich or as the Vatican's chief doctrinal enforcer?
Should the pope resign?
Yikes! Isn't it frustrating when someone is just too shy to say what he really thinks?
Should Pope Benedict XVI be held responsible for the escalating scandals over clerical sexual abuse in Europe?
Yes he should, and it's going to escalate a lot further, as more and more victims break through the guilt of their childhood indoctrination and come forward.
Should he be investigated for how cases of abuse were handled under his watch as archbishop of Munich or as the Vatican's chief doctrinal enforcer?
Yes, of course he should. This former head of the Inquisition should be arrested the moment he dares to set foot outside his tinpot fiefdom of the Vatican, and he should be tried in an appropriate civil - not ecclesiastical - court. That's what should happen. Sadly, we all know our faith-befuddled governments will be too craven to do it.
Should the pope resign?
No. As the College of Cardinals must have recognized when they elected him, he is perfectly - ideally - qualified to lead the Roman Catholic Church. A leering old villain in a frock, who spent decades conspiring behind closed doors for the position he now holds; a man who believes he is infallible and acts the part; a man whose preaching of scientific falsehood is responsible for the deaths of countless AIDS victims in Africa; a man whose first instinct when his priests are caught with their pants down is to cover up the scandal and damn the young victims to silence: in short, exactly the right man for the job. He should not resign, moreover, because he is perfectly positioned to accelerate the downfall of the evil, corrupt organization whose character he fits like a glove, and of which he is the absolute and historically appropriate monarch.
No, Pope Ratzinger should not resign. He should remain in charge of the whole rotten edifice - the whole profiteering, woman-fearing, guilt-gorging, truth-hating, child-raping institution - while it tumbles, amid a stench of incense and a rain of tourist-kitsch sacred hearts and preposterously crowned virgins, about his ears.
Yikes! Isn't it frustrating when someone is just too shy to say what he really thinks?
Truer words were never spoken
I could give a flying crap about the political process... We're an entertainment company.—Glenn Beck, Forbes Magazine dated April 26, 2010
Perhaps the only true words Glenn Beck has ever spoken.
Driving me crazy
I'm not sure which of the following types of drivers annoy me the most:
1. Drivers intending to make a right turn onto a two-lane highway who tie up traffic behind them because they insist on waiting until both lanes are totally clear before proceeding. Whatever happened to seizing the right lane and then—if they really need to get into the left lane—merge left as traffic permits?
2. Drivers who park in the left lane of a two-lane highway by going 10 miles per hour less than the speed limit, even on a clear day with dry roads. If they were about to make a left turn any time soon, that would be understandable. But how many times do you see such people proceed for mile after mile totally oblivious to the fact that everyone behind them is compelled to pass to the right?
On second thought, I'll bet both groups are very often the same drivers. I favor issuing them restricted licenses that permit them to drive only on February 30.
1. Drivers intending to make a right turn onto a two-lane highway who tie up traffic behind them because they insist on waiting until both lanes are totally clear before proceeding. Whatever happened to seizing the right lane and then—if they really need to get into the left lane—merge left as traffic permits?
—or—
2. Drivers who park in the left lane of a two-lane highway by going 10 miles per hour less than the speed limit, even on a clear day with dry roads. If they were about to make a left turn any time soon, that would be understandable. But how many times do you see such people proceed for mile after mile totally oblivious to the fact that everyone behind them is compelled to pass to the right?
On second thought, I'll bet both groups are very often the same drivers. I favor issuing them restricted licenses that permit them to drive only on February 30.
Math nuggets
Mathematics is the only subject that really counts, and random numbers are too important to be left to chance. After all, math is just a sine of the times.
There are three kinds of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who don't.
Be advised that you should not use the number 288 in polite company because it's two gross.
I'll do algebra, I'll do trig, and I'll even do statistics, but graphing is where I draw the line.
It might be acute to say so, but the trig to getting a good tan is to remember it's all a matter of degrees, and a man who stays in the sun long enough becomes a tangent.
On the other hand, Microsoft Windows is just another pane in the glass.
Alas, mathematical puns are the first sine of madness.
There are three kinds of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who don't.
Be advised that you should not use the number 288 in polite company because it's two gross.
I'll do algebra, I'll do trig, and I'll even do statistics, but graphing is where I draw the line.
It might be acute to say so, but the trig to getting a good tan is to remember it's all a matter of degrees, and a man who stays in the sun long enough becomes a tangent.
On the other hand, Microsoft Windows is just another pane in the glass.
Alas, mathematical puns are the first sine of madness.
Well, where did it go?
4/04 - Date not found.
(Come on: it's a computer joke! Where is your sense of humor??)
(Come on: it's a computer joke! Where is your sense of humor??)
Oh, you poor fellows...
In February, Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele, while debating a proposed tax increase for people making over $250,000 per year, said that "after taxes, a million dollars is not a lot of money." Steele made the comment in Little Rock during a debate against Democrat Harold Ford Jr., then a potential New York Senate candidate. (Steele is not the only out-of-touch-with-reality Republican: radio host Rush Limbaugh—who reportedly makes about $50 million a year—also recently argued that "$250,000 is not wealthy.")
Forget the lavish Republican "strategy session" in Hawaii in January. (As John McCain himself once asked, whatever happened to the Republicans as the party of fiscal responsibility?) Forget the Republican financing of a party at a lesbian bondage night club in California. (Can you say "family values?") Mr. Steele's statement breaks new ground as the epitome of arrogant insensitivity, coming as it does when unemployment nation-wide is hovering near 10%. For workers earning the median salary in this country, it would take 20 years to earn a million dollars before taxes, assuming they could even hold a job for that duration. Shed no crocodile tears for Mr. Steele or Mr. Limbaugh.
The only other organization that is so out of touch with ordinary citizens is the Catholic church. (On second thought, maybe the church is a little too much in touch!) "Holy Father, the people of God are with you and will not let themselves be influenced by the petty gossip of the moment..." Cardinal Angelo Sodano said recently while "defending" the pope. With friends like that, who needs enemies? How can Cardinal Sodano have the audacity to dismiss reports of hundreds if not thousands of documented cases of child abuse by Catholic priests as mere "petty gossip"???
Both the Republican hierarchy and the church hierarchy just don't get it. A pox on both their houses...
Forget the lavish Republican "strategy session" in Hawaii in January. (As John McCain himself once asked, whatever happened to the Republicans as the party of fiscal responsibility?) Forget the Republican financing of a party at a lesbian bondage night club in California. (Can you say "family values?") Mr. Steele's statement breaks new ground as the epitome of arrogant insensitivity, coming as it does when unemployment nation-wide is hovering near 10%. For workers earning the median salary in this country, it would take 20 years to earn a million dollars before taxes, assuming they could even hold a job for that duration. Shed no crocodile tears for Mr. Steele or Mr. Limbaugh.
The only other organization that is so out of touch with ordinary citizens is the Catholic church. (On second thought, maybe the church is a little too much in touch!) "Holy Father, the people of God are with you and will not let themselves be influenced by the petty gossip of the moment..." Cardinal Angelo Sodano said recently while "defending" the pope. With friends like that, who needs enemies? How can Cardinal Sodano have the audacity to dismiss reports of hundreds if not thousands of documented cases of child abuse by Catholic priests as mere "petty gossip"???
Both the Republican hierarchy and the church hierarchy just don't get it. A pox on both their houses...
Not viable—at least not for CCPS!
Denmark's finance ministry, New Zealand's Ministry of Health, the state of Nebraska, the FBI, NASA, and the NSA, among others, all use variants of the open source Linux operating system. The French military, Ministry of Culture, and Tax Authority all run the free and open source Thunderbird e-mail software on over 200,000 computers. And even Chesterfield County's own Public Library System has offered the free and open source Firefox web browser as an alternative to Internet Explorer for many years now.
When I asked the Chesterfield County Public Schools (CCPS) Director of Technology if any serious consideration has ever been given to using open source software at CCPS, she replied:
Open source software: demonstrably practical for all of the larger organizations listed above, but not viable for the delicate sensibilities of CCPS???
When I asked the Chesterfield County Public Schools (CCPS) Director of Technology if any serious consideration has ever been given to using open source software at CCPS, she replied:
Over ten years ago, Chesterfield County Public Schools standardized our network and systems on Windows. Our servers are Windows; our software is Windows compatible and all applications either externally purchased or internally created are Windows compatible. To move to an unsupported open source solution would not be a viable solution for an organization of this size.
Open source software: demonstrably practical for all of the larger organizations listed above, but not viable for the delicate sensibilities of CCPS???
Bon Voyage!
On his radio show last month, Rush Limbaugh threatened to leave the country if the Health Care Reform Act (HCRA) was passed by Congress. “I’ll just tell you this, if this passes and it’s five years from now and all that stuff gets implemented — I am leaving the country. I’ll go to Costa Rica,” he said.
Well, the Health Care Reform Act did eventually pass, so we can only hope that Rush will let us all know when and where his departure flight is scheduled. Millions of us will be delighted to see him off!
Well, the Health Care Reform Act did eventually pass, so we can only hope that Rush will let us all know when and where his departure flight is scheduled. Millions of us will be delighted to see him off!
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