[2003/09/30]

→ it's not really finished yet, but the photo gallery is up and started. right now i have two up, but i'll go back and possibly add a bunch more. or maybe just add new ones. do let me know if anything seems mussed up. | trackback 0

[2003/09/29]

→ stories like this are so true to life it makes me cry. well, not literally cry. you know, like on the inside. | trackback 0

→ wizard of oz reference? | trackback 0

→ oh my! mister brown, are you ok? tell me this is a case of mistaken identity. . . | trackback 0

→ since we moved to a new server over the weekend, i'm reviewing how i handle photos here and thinking of moving to a dynamic, purely web-based photo gallery system (like Gallery) and so have not put the photos back up yet. | trackback 0

→ we moved macktez.com to a new server this weekend. | trackback 0

[2003/09/24]

→ speaking of disgusting, how about the upcoming trainwreck called electronic voting machines? (let's not even get into the corruption of other aspects of elections.) some of this may be over your heads, but suffice it to say that these voting machines violate countless data auditing and security standards:

GEMS receives the incoming votes and stores them in a vote ledger. But then, we found, it makes another set of books with a copy of what is in vote ledger 1. And at the same time, it makes yet a third vote ledger with another copy.

The Elections Supervisor never sees these three sets of books. All she sees is the reports she can run: Election summary (totals, county wide) or a detail report (totals for each precinct). She has no way of knowing that her GEMS program is using multiple sets of books, because the GEMS interface draws its data from an Access database, which is hidden.

And here is what is quite odd: On the programs we tested, the Election summary (totals, county wide) come from the vote ledger 2 instead of vote ledger 1.

Now, think of it like this: You want the report to add up ONLY the ACTUAL votes. But, unbeknownst to the election supervisor, votes can be added and subtracted from vote ledger 2, so that it may or may not match vote ledger 1. Her official report comes from vote ledger 2, which has been disengaged from vote ledger 1.

If she asks for a detailed report for some precincts, though, her report comes from vote ledger 1. Therefore, if you keep the correct votes in vote ledger 1, a spot check of detailed precincts (even if you compare voter-verified paper ballots) will always be correct.

From a programming standpoint, there might be reasons to have a special vote ledger that disengages from the real one. From an accounting standpoint, using multiple sets of books is NOT OKAY. From an accounting standpoint, the ONLY thing the totals report should add up is the original votes in vote ledger 1. Proper bookkeeping NEVER allows an extra ledger that can be used to just erase the original information and add your own. And certainly, it is improper to have the official reports come from the second ledger, the one which may or may not have information erased or added. | trackback 0

→ this DynCorp debacle is shockingly repulsive. | trackback 0

→ (link from sat and matthew's verbal yesterday): guys, it's not the existence of cheeseburger fries that is interesting in this nyt article, it's the implication that a massive shift in meat consumption from beef to chicken that took place largely because of the mcnugget: "Twenty years ago Americans ate 77.1 pounds of beef per capita and 51.3 pounds of chicken. In 2001, the figures were 66.2 pounds of beef per capita and 75.6 pounds of chicken. That reversal took place in part because of the popularity of McDonald's Chicken McNuggets, which were introduced in 1983." dang, 15 pounds of chcken ncnuggets is a lot of "extra parts. | trackback 0

→ i'd be curious to actually test this, but this lindows preloading deal with seagate sounds very clever: "Lindows.com is pleased to announce LindowsHD, high-performance Seagate hard drives pre-loaded with a copy of LindowsOS" -- esp if this really worksk: "Simply plugging in the LindowsHD and starting the computer up will auto-recognize all of the internal components in virtually all Intel-compatible computers (video card, ethernet card, sound card, etc.) with no user intervention or custom installation." | trackback 0

[2003/09/23]

→ this one on "some of the choices writers face (or have faced) in their choice of tools" goes out to rach and ken. choose your implement, baby. | trackback 0

→ ya know, i don't think i've yet linked to my college friend aman's site. . . he has some fantastic, dynamic images up there. | trackback 0

[2003/09/22]

→ (from a windy route starting at sat) this genius sticker/stencil oozes subtle sophistication. | trackback 0

[2003/09/19]

→ for everyone who wonders what i'm talkin about when i express amazement that microsoft can claim security is any sort fo a priority when they release the stuff they do, here are two articles on the topic. | trackback 0

[2003/09/18]

→ i'm really not into conspiracy theories, but i have to admit that some of the unanswered questions (though some are a little too wacky for me) surrounding 9/11 really give me the shivers. | trackback 0

[2003/09/16]

→ responses from technical support professionals like this are why macktez exists. wow. how man "--" and acronyms can you count? | trackback 0

[2003/09/15]

→ while following links on that jumbled language meme stuff, i came across this entry entitled fish diet prevents teen violence - a critical look on salon's david harris' blog about the absurd gap between the actual thing studied in scientific studies, the conclusions the authors draw, and then the trully shocking extrapolations journalists draw from those consluisons. | trackback 0

→ tihs meem abuot jmbleud lgngaue -s st-nn-ng. -nd -v-rywh-r- -n th- bl-g-shp-r-. | trackback 0

[2003/09/14]

→ another clear article on the many ways the music industry keeps finding to screw it's customers and pin the blame for its freefall on those same consumers. | trackback 0

→ just five more days until Talk Like A Pirate Day. mark your calendar. | trackback 0

[2003/09/10]

→ rach, you are gonna love this site on luciferous logolepsy. | trackback 0

→ i think this is interesting news from autocad creators autodesk. they appear to be making some moves to bring OS X into the fold, including allowing "Mac users to view and print design information created by Autodesk design software" and saved in the DWF 6 format. not quite sure what this means and it's a long way from announcing AutoCAD for OS X, but still potentially a move in the right direction. and, i suspect, an opportunity for 3rd parties and file conversion tools. | trackback 0

[2003/09/09]

→ that's the attitude. you go and get 'im, RIAA. show no mercy. especially hard core ones like 12 year one Brianna: "'I got really scared. My stomach is all turning,' Brianna said last night at the city Housing Authority apartment where she lives with her mom and her 9-year-old brother.'" 'cause everyone knows the honors students of today are the hardened pirates of tomorrow. UPDATE: phew, in a haze of withering criticism, the RIAA rushed in and settled with this pirate of tomorrow. | trackback 0

[2003/09/08]

→ what is it with all this merging? now two huge mail order catalog companies, CDW is buying up MicroWarehouse (parent of PC & MacWarehouse): "CDW today announced that it has agreed to purchase selected North American assets of Micro Warehouse, the parent company of MacWareHouse. The agreement includes purchase of the US customer base, which accounted for annualized August sales of more than $900 million; the Canadian operation, existing inventories valued at approximately $14 million, and intellectual capital, including trademarks and copyrights. The purchase price for the assets being acquired, including inventory, is approximately $22 million" | trackback 0

[2003/09/04]

→ ev, i thought you might find this interesting: "THE BUSH DOCTRINE AND THE 2004 PRESIDENTIAL RACE, a World Policy Institute Discussion (Thu 9/25 6:00PM Free; Swayduck Auditorium, 65 5th Ave) Also available as a webcast and online discussion. With Sidney Blumenthal, former Senior Advisor to President Clinton; Lewis Lapham, editor of Harper's Magazine; and Stephen Schlesinger, Director, The World Policy Institute." | trackback 0

[2003/09/02]

→ i'm listed on nyc bloggers down at delancy. that's neat. i think. ok, i submitted the site myself. | trackback 0

→ this technote took a surprisingly long while to find: Mac OS X Server 10.2 or Later: How to Publish an iCal Calendar on a Hosted Site. | trackback 0