Have been thinking about Captchas recently (see below for details if you're not familiar with the term). Namely, are there better approaches to Captchas than digitally altered text? Because there's a possibility that OCR software -- say, the kind that the Post Office uses to read hand-written ZIP codes -- can already defeat the "munged text" strategy.

For example, here's a different kind of image-based approach (I don't have any suitable clip-art handy, so bear with me). Imagine, if you would, that each "bird image" and "car image" -- below -- is a different photo of a bird or car, respectively:

Bird image	Bird image	Car image	Bird image
Bird image	Bird image	Bird image	Bird image
Bird image	Bird image	Car image	Bird image
Bird image	Bird image	Bird image	Bird image

Check the boxes underneath the 2 Cars, then Press

My stats are rusty, but I believe the odds that a computer could pick the correct two images (say, cars in this example) is 2/16 * 1/15 or about 1 in 120. Not good enough? Making the user match 3 images ups the odds to about 1 in 600. 4 matches yields odds of about 1 in 1800.

Still not good enough? What if we randomly produce 2, 3 or 4 matches - and force the user to pick all of them? (Obviously, we would change the caption to Check the boxes underneath ALL of the cars). Again, I'm not a stat-dude, but I think the odds now soar to about 1 in a million. I think that's probably good enough. Plus, it relies upon recognition of dynamically chosen images -- not alphanumeric characters -- which requires substantially more computing power to analyze.

Nick Fury

Growing up, my favorite comic book was Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD. SHIELD stood for Special Headquarters for Intelligence, Espionage, Law Enforcement and Defense. Perhaps I made that up. I've long since forgotten what it stood for. But I do remember the artwork. Johnny Severin, I believe, was the unbelievably great master behind the first few issues. He was so good, reading the comic was almost like watching a movie. Severin was just that talented.

Fury was a former WWII non-com, the leader of the Howling Commandos (subject of another great Marvel comic book). The Commandos fought mostly in the European Theater and Fury's crew came within a whisker of kidnapping and/or killing Hitler on several occasions.

In the late sixties, of course, the James Bond phenomenon was sweeping the country. Fury was modernized as a secret agent, actually the head of SHIELD, with an expanse of gadgets and weaponry that would leave "Q" green with envy. HYDRA (don't ask me what that stood for) was SHIELD's arch-enemy, the SMERSH to Bond's British Intelligence.

The reason Fury was so compelling is best described in this single paragraph:

Nick Fury has trained as a paratrooper, Ranger, demolitions expert and vehicle specialist. He holds an unlimited-tonnage, all-seas license as a commander of ocean-going vessels. Fury has completed Green and Black Beret special-forces training, is a seasoned unarmed- and armed-combat expert, was a heavyweight boxer in the Army, and holds a black belt in Tae Kwan Do and a brown belt in Jiu Jitsu. He has honed his fighting skills sparring with the star-spangled Super-Soldier called Captain America, perhaps the world's finest unarmed-combat expert. The experimental Infinity Formula that Fury first ingested during World War II retarded his aging, granting him the physique of a much younger man. Nick Fury, the oldest of three children born to an American pilot who died in battle during the final year of World War I, grew up in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of New York City. At the start of American involvement in World War II, Fury enlisted in the Army. He underwent basic training at Fort Dix in New Jersey under the command of Sgt. Charles Bass, a stern taskmaster who singled him out as the company scapegoat. In short order, Fury proved himself to be an excellent soldier and capable leader, and rose quickly to the rank of sergeant.

You want a piece of Nick Fury? Well, do ya?

Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD

I sometimes think that algorithms were hard-wired into my brain from my very earliest days on the planet. And, no, Lincoln wasn't President then.

When I was a little kid, I remember cutting covers of Time Magazine off. Then, using a ruler, I'd draw a grid of "cells" on each cover. A cover might have a matrix of 50 or 60 cells in the X axis and 70 or 80 in the Y axis when I was done with it. I would then make a judgment call on each cell of the grid as to its relative lightness or darkness level. Using a typewriter, I would manually transcribe each cell into a typewritten character. A really dark cell might be an X or an M. A really light cell might be a space character or a period.

After painstakingly transforming the grid into a typewritten page, I got some pretty cool results. I think I still have my "portrait" of Nixon press secretary Ron Zeigler around somewhere (contact me for pricing info ;-).

The reason I bring this up is there's a technology out today -- sometimes called a Captcha -- that generates text in JPG form to prevent automated access to certain web pages. For example, when you create a Yahoo account, you're asked to enter a textual phrase that appears as a morphed image. The tacit assumption is that only a "real" brain can perform the necessary pattern recognition.

But why are JPG's even necessary? You could use (TT) text in the HTML itself. Here's an oversimplified example:

............ZXX............ ..........
...XXXX....Z...Y.............3333...........
...X...X...Z...Y....6555....3...............
...X...X...Z...Z...6.........3333...........
...XXXX.... ZZZ.....6666.........3.......---
-. X..X.................6....3333........---
-..X...X............6666.................---
-..X....X................................---

which you would probably recognize as 'Ross'. The HTML font size would be very tiny. Colors could be used. The text could be slanted, italicized, whatever.

So why does this matter? One unique aspect of the text-based approach is it conforms to accessibility standards (e.g., the font size can be increased at the browser). One of the complaints about JPG images is that folks with visual impairments can't increase the size. From your Internet Explorer menu, do a View >> Text Size and increase the text-size to see the effect.

This "text-based bot defeater" answers the accessibility issue and provides help to folks with vision problems. At least, that's my take.

Entertainingly dull

Is this really The dullest blog in the world? It actually is more entertaining than you might think... at least for about 45 seconds or so. :-)

Rant-o-Matic 2000

Speaking of childish rants -- okay, actually we weren't, but -- I was having a conversation with Mr. T about the fact that he hasn't updated his blog in about a week. His response:

But I'm out of town. Waah. Waaah. WAAAAAH.

Okay, he didn't actually cry. But my response was:

NEWS FLASH: ITS THE F**KING WEB

Not ten minutes later, his blog was updated... with a scathing indictment of one of my blog entries. But he's not bitter.

I, Intel

So, I was looking to design my own chips for some custom hardware I was putting together. Well, not really, but I just read this article on how to create your own custom chips. It's pretty neat. You don't need a $500,000,000 fab plant. You don't even need $100. Read on.

You can design your own chips at home with a PC using no more than about $50 of equipment and I'm going to tell you how with the absolute minimum of effort.

I'm going to make some basic assumptions: that you vaguely know a language with C like syntax and have a vague idea that digital electronics is about manipulating binary data represented in wires by a voltage level using logic gates.

You can't design your own components completely from the ground up at home, for that you do need a lot of expensive equipment. But what you can do is program what are known as Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) or Complex Programmable Logic Devices (CPLDs). These are large arrays of logic gates connected by a complex network that allows you to connect any gate to any other pretty much however you want. In effect you design a logic circuit on a PC that is downloaded to a chip...

A Verilog Introduction for Hackers

Tomes

A great post on Kuro5hin asks:

What books have influenced your life?

Cojones

Infosys Technologies, an India-based software development company with its U.S. headquarters in Fremont, asked the state for more than a million dollars in tax relief, saying the standard tax formula fails to reflect that two-thirds of its U.S. work is done offshore.

In its petition to the California Franchise Tax Board, Infosys argues that it pays its engineers in California nine times more than those in India and that difference inflates its California tax liabilities.

State tax officials rejected the claim last week. But the request for a lower tax burden by the company -- which derives about 75 percent of its $1 billion a year in revenue from U.S. companies -- left some observers dumbfounded.

``They're asking for a tax break on the grounds their payroll costs one-ninth in India,'' said Lenny Goldberg, director of the California Tax Reform Association. ``It takes a lot of nerve to ask that, considering the context in which they operate.''"

Tax relief for offshoring?

Joel was kind enough to answer my question on JOS' 'Ask Joel' forum.

Question: A followup to the thread regarding worrying about what customers are saying about your products -- rather than what competitors are doing. What methods are you using to solicit meaningful feedback from customers? What about prospects? Do you do any outbound calls/emails/etc. for this purpose?

Answer: Nothing outbound. Our three best sources for feedback:

* the "Send Feedback" menu item in CityDesk. Goes right into our bug tracking database, and generates so much (excellent) feedback that we simply can't reply to any of it; we're lucky if we have time to tally votes for feature requests.
* a general policy that there should be an email link at the bottom of every page on our website
* online discussion forums

These three methods get us more than enough feedback...

Methods of soliciting feedback from customers

Good insight from MSN into the Sopranos' next few episodes.

In Sunday's "The Two Tonys," the old mobsters return. Tony's sister, Janice (Aida Turturro), now married to Bobby (Steven R. Schirripa), resents having to make Sunday dinner. Tony tries to date his therapist, Dr. Jennifer Melfi (Lorraine Bracco).

"Rat Pack" on March 14 introduces the new Tony. In a quietly amusing moment, he wears the suit he had before prison, proving that the "Miami Vice" look is best remembered, not revived. The next week, "Where's Johnny?" proves tough guys share about as well as toddlers, and more blood is shed as they try to divide up business. Paulie Walnuts (Tony Sirico) shows he has never lost his taste for dirty street fighting. And in "All Happy Families," Feech drives the younger guys crazy with his war stories while Carmela and Tony try to deal with A.J.'s problems.

After this year, there is one season remaining. Imperioli, who has written five episodes, knows how he wants to see the finale: "Dark and ugly," he says. "Why not?""

'The Sopranos' Returns

Whackometer

The Detroit Free Press reports...

...the online wagering site BetWWTS.com, figures that Johnny Sack (Vince Curatola) will be the first biggie whacked on this season of "The Sopranos," which kicked off Sunday night on HBO.

They've got Johnny at 3-1 (for fun only) odds, followed by Little Carmine (Ray Abruzzo) at 7-2 and Adriana (Drea de Matteo) at 4-1. The odds on Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) taking a nap with the oysters? 60-1.

Online 'Sopranos' site lays odds on hits by the mob

Johnny Perry

Farewell to Johnny Perry.

Johnny Perry's favorite T-shirt declared to the world what few would dare say to his face: "Freak." At 6-foot-5 and 375 pounds, Perry towered like a colossus over most of the folks who worked out with him. His tattooed biceps were 25 inches, bigger around than the waists of some of the girls who swooned over him. Perry knew he was a genetic anomaly, and he reveled in it.

At 27, the Carolina farmboy entered the semi-sideshow world of professional strongmen -- towing trucks, flipping tractor tires and shouldering boulders. There wasn't much money in it, but he got to travel the world and be seen by millions on cable sports channels. A mere three years after turning pro, Perry was ranked second in the United States and fourth in the world. But his goal was to be crowned world's strongest man, the first American to hold the title in 20 years. And if genetics alone couldn't get him there, he would use steroids to help nature along...

Strongman dead at 30

Lethal Passion

From the Telegraph:

Steve Martin, the actor and comedian, has launched a biting satirical attack on Mel Gibson and his Hollywood version of the death of Jesus Christ, mocking the film as a piece of money-making showbusiness - and suggesting that he, too, regards it as anti-Semitic... [Martin] penned a sharply worded column on the The Passion of the Christ for The New Yorker magazine.

While Mr Gibson, who made the film with his own money, claims that his intention was to produce a profound statement of his religious beliefs, Mr Martin - influenced, perhaps, by the film's ticket sales of $127 million in less than two weeks - appears to disagree.

In Mr Martin's column, "Stan", a fictitious studio boss, sends Mr Gibson "studio script notes" on The Passion...

...On the lengthy and gruesome scenes of Jesus being whipped, which have forced many cinemagoers to turn their heads, "Stan" remarks briefly: "Love the flaying."

...Other suggestions he offers include: "Could the rabbis be Hispanic? There's lots of hot Latino actors now, could give us a little zing at the box office." And: "Possible title change: 'Lethal Passion.' Kinda works...

..."Is there someplace where Jesus could be using an iBook?" he asks. "Think about it. Maybe we start a shot in Heaven with Jesus thoughtfully closing the top..."

..."Stan" points out another apparent spelling mistake. "In the description of the bystanders, there should be a space between the words 'Jew' and 'boy'," he writes.

Memo to Mel: Could the rabbis be Hispanic?

Sunday Funnies






Don't even ask why these cops are roughing up Ronald McDonald. Let's just say Mayor McCheese is NOT happy - and leave it at that.

RFID Domain

If you're interested in RFID (wireless ID tags), Sean's new blog is concentrating on culling out the most insightful articles on the topic and separating the wheat from the chaff. Wal-Mart and the DOD are two of the largest consumers of RFID. Their entire supply-chains -- and, thus, a heck of a lot of companies -- will be dramatically impacted by the conversion.

The landscape of RFID is fascinating: the possibility of "Jetsons-style" inventory management with no wastage; the potential privacy issues (can someone track your purchases after you leave the store?); the range of technical implementation options. RFIDdomain can hopefully make some sense of these complex issues, rather than just acting as a shill and press release outlet for anyone with an RFID offering.

RFIDdomain

School of Rock

Is it trite to say that this movie ROCKS?

Jack Black's immense comedic and musical talents are brought to the fore in this light, fun-loving romp. Black plays Dewey Finn, an overenthusiastic guitarist who has just been kicked out of his band _and_ threatened with eviction by his roommate's overbearing girlfriend. No doom and gloom for Finn, though, as he sets out to enter the "Battle of the Bands" with a brand new group. But where to find the talent for a new band?

Answering his roommate's phone at the apartment, Finn ends up pretending to be a substitute teacher at a fancy schmancy prep school to earn some cash for his overdue rent. When he discovers that several of his young charges are musical prodigies, he drives them with an all-day curriculum of pure rock education, setting the stage for revenge on his old band. Yes, he plans to enter "Battle of the Bands" with a bunch of 10 year olds as his group.

Formulaic? Yes. Silly? Yes. Will you laugh? Heck, yeah, 'cuz this movie rocks!

School of Rock - Widescreen DVD

Version Tracking... Off

Turn off Microsoft Word's Version Tracking feature. If there's one lesson you can take away from SCO's embarrassing disclosure that Bank of America (BofA) was the original target of lawsuits, it's simply "turn off version tracking". If you'll remember, SCO had threatened to sue over 1,500 large enterprises for their use of Linux.

...A feature in the word-processing software tracks changes to documents, who made those changes, and when they were made. These notations typically are invisible to someone reading a Word document. But as some lawyers, businesspeople and politicians have learned the hard way, Word can also display so-called metadata in the document--including the original version and all subsequent changes. This information is available by viewing the document under "original showing markup" or "final showing markup.

...Examples of the changes made to the Word document that later became SCO's lawsuit against DaimlerChrysler include the following: • On Feb. 18 at 11:10 a.m. "Bank of America, a National Banking Association" was removed as a defendant and "DaimlerChrysler Corp." was inserted. • Three minutes later, this comment was removed: "Are there any special jurisdiction or venue requirements for a NA bank?" • At the end of the lawsuit, "February" was listed as the filing date, although no exact date was given. SCO previously had said that it expected to file a lawsuit against a Linux user by mid-February...

Document shows SCO prepped lawsuit against BofA

A search engine for tech investors?

Bright idea from CHI: use a Google-style ranking system using patent citations -- not hyperlinks -- to determine who's coming up with the most cited ideas. Then invest in those companies.

Two years back... I asked CHI to share its top 10 tech-stock picks with... readers... its picks have returned an average of 59.2%, while the Nasdaq 100 and [S&P 500] indexes returned 4.2% and 6.1%, respectively. Each year since 2000, when CHI began issuing monthly buy recommendations to institutional investors (subscription price: $15,000 a year), it has killed the market averages. In 2003, as the average tech-stock mutual fund returned 55.9%, CHI's picks returned 162%.

HOW DO THEY DO IT? CHI uses a strictly quantitative method based on evaluating the strength of public companies' patent portfolios. Based in Haddon Heights, N.J., the firm got its start in 1968 reviewing patents for the National Science Foundation. It still consults for corporate clients, but its investment-research method, on which it has its own patent, is gaining renown. Here's how it works: Every month, CHI looks over the patents of 477 innovators, from mighty General Electric to the likes of genomics outfit Lynx Therapeutics. It checks not just how many patents each company holds but what it refers to as "citation impact" -- how often they are cited in later patent applications...

A search engine for tech prospectors

Carolina's First News!

Did someone forget to password-protect the admin account for Carolina 14's ("Carolina's First News!") school closing system? My favorite one features PWNT Enterprises. And props to Mr. T for the link.

Carolina 14 News: Closings

Not hiring jerks

There's another good thread on JOS regarding the importance of not hiring jerks. Sure, technical talent is key. Ability to prioritize. Quick ramp-up times. But the ability to -- well -- just get along with people is critical to efficient teamwork. Deep into the thread, a good post by "Boofus" highlights some examples. As a long-time consultant-type, I thought I'd add what I would say in those same situations...

Co-worker: "What do you think of ....?"

Jerk: "That's fine, IF YOU WANT TO BRING THE SYSTEM TO ITS KNEES."

Non-Jerk: "I really don't think that's a good idea because ..."

Doug: I wonder whether the plughometer would interfere with the system because of ... ?

--------------

Co-worker: "Can you tell me what the function ... does?"

Jerk: "Go look it up, you shitwit."

Non-jerk: "I'm not sure I can describe all the nuances, and I'm pretty busy. Why don't you check the documentation and come back if you have questions."

Doug: (flipping to VSS) Hold on and I'll check... Note: you may internally sigh and not want to do this... and be quite busy... but few situations are really so dire that you can't spend 45 seconds to help someone out. Yes, yes, I understand that you might have to unwind your current "state" (e.g., creating or reading an algorithm) but it's oftentimes worth it. You're supposed to be a mentor. You're supposed to be a leader. Act like it.

---------------

Co-worker: "Good morning"

Jerk: "I hate you with the heat of a thousand burning suns."

Non-jerk: "Good morning."

Doug: What's happening, youngster?

Not hiring jerks

The Hot Zone meets The Da Vinci Code

Just posted this Amazon Book review of Jeff Long's excellent Year Zero. Five stars.

Sowing seeds cultivated from Stephen King's _The Stand_ -- as well as _The Da Vinci Code_ and _The Hot Zone_ -- Jeff Long has written a complex, compelling, and stunningly unique thriller.

Nathan Lee Swift is an archaeologist cum museum-sanctioned grave-robber who takes advantage of a monstrous Middle East earthquake by stealing ancient Christian bones and artifacts from Golgotha. This theft from Jesus' crucifixion site will have calamitous results for all of humanity. For an unwitting antiquities dealer inadvertently releases a 2000 year old plague that literally wipes the world clean of humanity.

Racing before the tidal wave of epidemic, Nathan Lee makes his way to Los Alamos -- the last bastion of humanity. There, scientists have resorted to using the "Year Zero" bones in bizarre cloning experiments... all to determine whether the ancients had an immunity to the plague. But somehow the clones have more in store for humanity than a possible cure. Many have their original memories intact. And one has made the claim that he is the Messiach: Jesus Christ.

Outstanding novel - I had some rough nights sleeping while ripping through this. And that's about the highest accolade I can give a book.

Year Zero

I somehow missed this CNN article in which Google is rumored to be creating their own email service... web-based, one would assume.

Interesting take-aways from the article:

1) GoogleMail would be an additional, lucrative channel for AdWords (its "sponsored links" advertising program).

2) It PPC (pay-per-click) model -- under attack due to fraudulent click-throughs by bots, unscrupulous advertisers, and the like -- can transmogrify itself into a less fraud-prone service. It's easy to track, for example, a specific user opening an email -- and by then customizing an encrypted click-through URL for that user - cut down on bogus clicks.

My impressions and suggestions:

1) GoogleMail will have to offer a free account option (a la Hotmail) because they are so late to the game. A premium service will have to be very, very good to get conversions. Webmail and email client technology is already competitive enough.

2) Here's how GoogleMail can make a dent in the spam wars and dramatically improve the user experience. Users who report spam -- and are accurate with their reports -- should have their "SpamRank" scores raised. Similar in concept to "PageRank", a SpamRank correlates the probability that a given email is true junk-mail. But here's the kicker: users who have high SpamRanks (i.e., their reports are accurate, based upon this very democratic ranking approach)... get premium services for some period of time. Good advertising vehicle for premium services, motivates users to team up against spam, improves the user experience for everyone. Nuff said. No-brainer. Someone send this to the GoogleMail gurus.

3) GoogleMail should have the option of integrating my Orkut friends' list. Hey, my address book is already in Orkut. I want it in GoogleMail, too, with a single 'Yes, that's cool' permission click.

"In fact, Google's AdSense contextual ads are already used in a number of e-mail newsletters," he said... As an aside, BadBlue's email newsletters are serving Google AdSense ads.

Sources: Google developing ad service for e-mail

Is password-lending a cybercrime?

In an almost insanely wrong-headed decision, a federal court rules that a willing password lender could be subject to a DMCA violation! SecurityFocus reports:

In a little-observed civil lawsuit involving tracking of magazine subscriptions, a federal court in Manhattan issued a ruling last week that could theoretically result in prosecutors going after people who use another person's password and userid with their permission, but without the permission of the issuer.

The case, decided last Monday, arose out of a dispute between two competing companies, Inquiry Management Systems (IMS), and Berkshire Information Systems, both of whom tracked magazine advertisements for their clients. Employees of Berkshire obtained a userid and password from a client of IMS, and used them to access IMS's website and tracking service. This act violated the customer's agreement with IMS.

From there, the Berkshire employees either read, or downloaded (or both) certain copyrighted information about the tracking of magazine advertisements, which of course, they used to compete with IMS.

Is this an unfair and deceptive trade practice? Sure! Inducing a breach of contract between IMS and its customer? Absolutely! Fraud? Sure, why not.

But IMS sued Berkshire for computer crime, and a violation of the DMCA..."

Password-lending a cyber-crime?

Worst Working Environments... Ever

Funny Slashdot thread on the worst working environments (for developers, mostly).

"I'm working 2 jobs right now (paying off credit cards/student loans). One as a half-assed programmer, the other cleaning monkey s**t at a primate lab. 40 hour week at the monkey lab, standing in a puddle of monkey poo, while shooting hot water through the empty cages.

Hosing poo, trying not to be splashed, while wondering "Is this one of the cages with the SIV poo?" SIV is Simian HIV. Or maybe it'll be a Hepatitis C monkey cage. It won't kill monkeys, but it'll kill humans.

But hey, it's winter so the poo isn't as stinky and there's no flies & mosquitos. I'd much rather freeze my ass off then wonder if I'm getting bitten by an mosquito that's been dining off an infected research monkey.

Last month they did some work on bubonic plague monkeys. I can't wait for the R.A.G.E. monkeys. Then I'll have an excuse for my upcoming killing spree.

...or...

...I did work in a pit in yorkshire - just outside Hull. The working day consisted of getting up at 5:30am, setting off at 5:50 arriving at the charcoal pits about 6:30 - think of giant power station chimmneys, half-height with the tops blocked off. We'd get changed into our disposable overalls and face-mask, enter a bunker which was lit by giant and very very hot floodlights. A big truck would be backed-up against the doors and we'd start unloading it. This meant climb up, grab a sack of charcoal, carry it back into the bunker, split it with your knife and tip it out. Go back again. Split it, tip it, go back again. Split it, tip it, go back again, etc. We did three bunkers a day, four hours a bunker. We'd take a break between each one - a fourteen hour day, not counting travel. We got 4 quid an hour.

You'd have a shower when you got back, but it'd take a hour to get properly clean, and even then you'd still cough up black stuff for the rest of the night. And my god, did your back ache!

And you try and tell someone how lucky they are to be working at a computer, and they just don't believe you! "

The absolute worst working environment

Village Voice Pillories Kerry on MIA's

It's not exactly a bastion of conservative thought, but the Village Voice has published a scathing article on John Kerry and his alleged coverup of a major issue: possibly hundreds of POW's and MIA's that were left behind after the Vietnam War ended. I could be off-base, but this strikes me as an extremely sensitive issue for Kerry's campaign.

"Senator John Kerry, a decorated battle veteran, was courageous as a navy lieutenant in the Vietnam War. But he was not so courageous more than two decades later, when he covered up voluminous evidence that a significant number of live American prisoners—perhaps hundreds—were never acknowledged or returned after the war-ending treaty was signed in January 1973.

The Massachusetts senator, now seeking the presidency, carried out this subterfuge a little over a decade ago— shredding documents, suppressing testimony, and sanitizing the committee's final report—when he was chairman of the Senate Select Committee on P.O.W./ M.I.A. Affairs..."

When John Kerry's Courage Went M.I.A.

Don Bendell goes OFF!

In the Kerry vein, check this Don Bendell rant out. It's been circulating via email and the web for several weeks now. I happened upon it via Google News. It's pretty intense.

" I was a green beret officer who volunteered for duty in Vietnam and fought in the thick of it in 1968 and 1969 on a Special Forces A-team on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, just for starters. We were the elite. We saw the most action. Everybody in the world knows that. But we did not just kill people, we built a church, a school, treated illnesses, passed out soap, food, and clothing, and had fun and loving interaction with the indigenous people of Vietnam, just like our boys did in Normandy, Baghdad, Saigon, and everywhere American soldiers ever served. We all gave away our candy bars and rations to kids. Our hearts to oppressed people all over the globe.

My children and grandchildren could read your words, and think those horrendous things about me, Mr. Kerry. You are a bold-faced, unprincipled liar, and a disgrace, and you have dishonored me and all my fellow Vietnam veterans. Sure, there were a couple bad-apples, but I saw none, and I saw it all, and if I did, as an army officer, it was my obligation to stop it, or at the very least report it. Why is there not a single record anywhere of you ever reporting any incidents like this or having the perpetrators arrested? The answer is simple. You are a liar. Your medals and mine are not a free pass for lifetime, Senator Kerry, to bypass character, integrity, and morality. I earn my green beret over and over daily in all aspects of my life...

John Kerry, you personally derailed the Vietnam Human Rights Bill, HR2883, in 2001, after it had passed the House by a 411 to 1 vote, and thousands of pro-American Montagnard tribespeople in Vietnam died since then who could have been saved, by you. Earlier, as Chair of the Senate Select Committee on MIA/POW Affairs, you personally quashed the efforts of any and all veterans to report sightings of living POW’s, when you held those reins in Congress. You have fought tooth and nail to push for the US to normalize relations with Vietnam for years. Why, Mr. Kerry? Simple, your first cousin C. Stewart Forbes, CEO, of Colliers International, recently signed a contract with Hanoi, worth BILLIONS of dollars for Collier’s International to become the exclusive real estate representative for the country of Vietnam..."

Don Bendell on John Kerry

Why Open-Source Usability Tends to Suck

Eric Raymond has a compelling story of an open-source usability disaster.

"I've just gone through the experience of trying to configure CUPS, the Common Unix Printing System. It has proved a textbook lesson in why nontechnical people run screaming from Unix. This is all the more frustrating because the developers of CUPS have obviously tried hard to produce an accessible system — but the best intentions and effort have led to a system which despite its superficial pseudo-friendliness is so undiscoverable that it might as well have been written in ancient Sanskrit...

...CUPS is not alone. This kind of fecklessness is endemic in open-source land. And it's what's keeping Microsoft in business — because by Goddess, they may write crappy insecure overpriced shoddy software, but on this one issue their half-assed semi-competent best is an order of magnitude better than we usually manage."

The Luxury of Ignorance: An Open-Source Horror Story and Why Free Software usability tends to suck

JOS Thread on Offshoring

Excellent thread on JOS regarding outsourcing and the differences between software design... and software development.

"When talking about "offshoring", I often use a different context to add perspective.

For example, John Grisham writes best-selling novels about lawyers. Could he offshore? Say, he plots out the entire novel, sketches out character bios and writes an example chapter or two. Then, he ships the whole package off to thirty Indian writers who each write a chapter in a month or two. Using offshoring, John Grisham could pump out six or so novels a year. Even if the quality impacts sales a bit, he's going to come out way ahead on gross revenues. Right?

No, and it is pretty obvious why.

First, book writing (and software, commercial software, at least) is not really about finding the cheapest way to get the job minimally done. Seemingly minor nits can have a major impact on sales..."

JOS Thread: Offshoring

Lest Darkness Fall

For my bi-annual sci-fi review, the following is my Amazon recap of the L. Sprague de Camp classic, Lest Darkness Fall:

"4 Stars - Creative, Concise and Appealing

Martin Padway, mild-mannered archaeologist, is visiting Rome when he is thrust backwards in time... all the way back to the sixth century A.D. The Roman Empire is fading fast... facing foes on all sides... with the thousand-year blight we now know as the Dark Ages fast approaching. Can a single man -- Padway --change history and prevent the fall of Rome? Nothing less than the 'Age of Enlightenment' hangs in the balance.

The literary descendent of 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court', de Camp lets Padway grapple with raw issues. I found these areas the story's most interesting sections: how to make a living, having arrived with only modern currency in hand... how to avoid the authorities, given their proclivity to brand any new technology 'witchcraft'... how to assemble allies, fend off enemies and stay healthy in an environment not conducive to outsiders.

Because it was written in 1939, there is a level of 'political incorrectness' that is entertainingly fresh. Italian women, Muslims, the French and others are insulted with broad brush-strokes. Nonetheless, it is historically informative, important from a literary standpoint and makes for interesting reading. Despite its age, it is a fluid, fast read. de Camp had a lot of interesting things to say... and said them well."

Amazon - Lest Darkness Fall

25th Hour

They should have called it Amnesia. My review of "25th Hour".

"Monty Brogan (Edward Norton) is supposed to be a lovable drug dealer with whom we can sympathize. In a series of flashbacks, we find out how he adopted his dog; how he met his girlfriend Naturelle (Rosario Dawson); his long-standing friendships with Wall Streeter Frank (Barry Pepper) and Jacob (Philip Seymour Hoffman); oh, and by the way, how he got busted with mega-dealer quantities of smack and cash.

But the story's foundation, it's reason for being, is the tale of Monty's last day of freedom before reporting to prison. Grappling with issues like: who gave him up to the DEA and stressing about meeting the Russian mob boss who's demanded to see him before he leaves for the can. The trouble is, despite Spike Lee's best efforts and the talented Mr. Norton, we just don't care.

The story could have been compelling, but there are too many things that don't work. Barry Pepper is supposed to be Monty's best friend but is a completely hateful person. Philip Seymour Hoffman's considerable talents are put to no use here, playing a teacher that has all the charisma of a road sign. NFL'er Tony Siragusa (Kostya) is not a professional actor and is out of his depth. Rosaria Dawson is beautiful and talented -- but the story lets us not care about her whatsoever.

The best thing about the flick -- and truly, the only things worth watching -- are two solliloquies: Norton's R-rated rant on New York while facing himself in the mirror... and his Father's beautiful, fictionalized account of now Monty could escape his fate. Those two vignettes, occupying maybe five minutes of screen time total, made the movie for me.

In the end, it all just doesn't compute. I think they should have called this flick "Amnesia". You'll have forgotten the entire story by the next day."

Sweet Science

FANTASTIC fight card coming up on HBO. Baby Joe Mesi --the latest in the long series of GWH's (Great White Hopes) in the heavyweight division -- has been termed 'Buffalo's third professional franchise'. He's a hitter. Powerful, with deceptively fast hands. He's not the greatest athlete among the up-and-coming heavyweights, but he's not the worst either. Not by a long shot.

Funny interview on Mesi's web site: "Q. Sorry, but the question must be asked. Which Rocky was the best movie and why?

A. By far the first movie. It's one of the best sporting movies. Rocky was forced to overcome setbacks. He appeared on the scene from nowhere. How could you not root for the underdog?

Q. Which Rocky opponent would you least want to fight and why?

A. The Russian - Ivan Drago from Rocky 4. Too big and too strong."

			"Sugar" Shane Mosley 39-2, 35 KO's VS. Ronald "Winky" Wright 46-3, 25 KO's		12 Round Undisputed Super Welterweight Title
	March 13, 2004 9:30 PM ET/6:30 PM PT				Mandalay Bay Las Vegas, NV
			Joe Mesi 28-0, 25 KO's VS. Vassiliy Jirov 33-1, 29 KO's		UNDERCARD 10 Round Heavyweight fight
	March 13, 2004 9:30 PM ET/6:30 PM PT				Mandalay Bay Las Vegas, NV

p.s., you have no idea how hard it was to get that table to post correctly in Blogger. ;-)

T on Tivo

Mr. T's blog had an excellent discussion of Tivo and the power it puts into the hands of the audience.

"...I can fast-forward through anything that doesn't interest me. I can create my own personal "director's cut" of any show I want. And the thing is, even the shows I love and watch every week have some excess fat that I can trim with the good ol' TiVo remote...

...On "Friends," I've learned that my opinion of a given episode increases dramatically if I race through the Monica/Chandler adoption arc at top speed...

...Bitter "ER" pill Abby Lockhart? Let's just say that on my "ER," there is no Abby Lockhart..."

If me and my Tivo ruled the world