Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Judicial Filibusters: a Brief History


(Picture credit US Senate Committee on the Judiciary)
Excel-web sharing of spreadsheetsI'd heard rumblings from the MSM/DNC that the idea of the judicial filibuster wasn't truly a Democratic party invention. That the GOP had effectively stonewalled some of President Clinton's nominees using procedural nastiness, albeit not filibusters themselves. I'd wondered about this issue. Was it correct? Was the GOP just as guilty as the Democrats in refusing to let Clinton's nominees come to a vote?

I hadn't seen a detailed explanation of these "procedural" methods until I came across this explanation on El Rushbo's site.

...Hagel said, "What we did with Clinton's nominees about 62 of them, we just didn't give them votes in committee or we didn't bring them up." In the first place, Bill Clinton had a large percentage (71%) of his nominees confirmed. George W. Bush has the lowest percentage (50%) of his nominees confirmed of any recent president, going back to Truman (over 90%).

Now, in this case the filibuster was not used. There was no violation of Senate rules in what the Republicans did. They didn't pass some of these nominees out of committee. Some of Bush's nominees haven't come out of committee. But none of the senators that came out of the judiciary committee when Clinton was president and the Republicans are running the committee, none of them were filibustered. Those that got out of committee got votes on the floor. That is not what's happening now.

The Democrats are the ones trying to change the age-old traditions of the Senate...


In other words, the majority used the Judiciary committee for its intended purpose: to determine the fitness of the nominee, stamping approval on those nominees deemed acceptable and forestalling others. This has occurred for many decades and is considered standard practice.

What has not been standard practice, at least for the last 215 years, is the judicial filibuster. Over that period, there has not been a single sustained filibuster of any judicial nominee.

Hugh Hewitt distills its history and ramifications a bit further:

The fact is that Senate Democrats want to enshrine a new rule -- a 60 vote rule -- for judicial confirmations.

If they want that rule, they should win some elections on the issue, rather than lose them.

It is clear that there will be no "compromise" worth having, just a vote on whether the Senate will abide by the design of the Framers and its practices of 215 years, or the desires of Patrick Leahy, Barbara Boxer, Chuck Schumer, Ted Kennedy, and Harry Reid to ignore that design and throw out those practices.


Piling on, Patterico reveals a beautifully laid out expose (shades of windiff for journalists) of the LA Dog-Trainer Times. Their apparent selective editing of Professor Greenberg's article on the history of the judicial filibuster compares with the best efforts of Pravda circa 1960 - and is just as relevant to today's news consumers.

If the MSM really stoops to these lows -- slashing op-ed pieces in chainsaw-massacre fashion to reach the conclusions they desire -- it simply indicates their rising panic. Heaven forbid they actually staunch subscription bleedout with op-ed balance or a sense of fair play. It's crystal clear from these tactics just how wrong they are... and how out of touch with their readers they remain. From all appearances, they can't trust their readers to read Greenberg's real op-ed piece... so they've created their own version, hoping to swing some opinions with adulterated bile.
 

Sharkfish's experiences interviewing techies


Picture credit: Boston College
Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueThrough a link on the JOS discussion board, Sharkfish discusses his takeaways from a long series of technical interviews. Here are some of the salient details:

# DO NOT send a resume with misspellings. You would be surprised how many of these we saw.

# I do not hammer people and I give them all sorts of leeway to relax. If a tense moment comes up (couldn't answer a technical question), I fall back and ask something more general. If you do not know the answer, just say you don't know. Hemming and hawing makes interviewers nervous. Yes, we interviewers are nervous, too.

# I was surprised at the number of people who out and out LIED on their resume. In addition to the usual Indian name with the resume of SuperMan (how in hell can you be great at EVERYTHING?). How DOES one get a skillset that includes mainframe, mini, PC, web apps, network admin, Unix, windows, database, programming EXPERT? Why is it that people with these mythical SuperResumes never seem to attach the skill with the employer, leaving me to guess that all this stuff was accomplished in India where it can never be verified?

# Don't put a web site on your resume that is supposed to be an example of your work if it is going to give a 404! We had at least two of these....


My experience interviewing techies
 

Monday, May 09, 2005

Meet the Fockers


Picture credit: RH Sager
Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueThe endlessly disappointing Bob Herbert reprised the Iraq war in a Times' Op-Ed piece this morning. I'll save you the time and effort of reading his diatribe, which can only be characterized as a complete waste of fourteen column-inches. Here are the key sound-bites, which I'm pretty sure were stolen from John Kerry's dustbin sometime in October:

  • ...war in Iraq has been an exercise in extreme madness...

  • ...amateurs and incompetents have run the war from the start...

  • ...Abu Ghraib was not an aberration. It was a symptom...

  • ...clownish, disastrous war...

  • Even putting aside his vicious, unwarranted insults of the US Military, it's stunning that Herbert has neither the eloquence or intellectual honesty of even, say, the virulent Barbra Streisand.

    Here's what Herbert fails to mention: 9/11. The innocents slaughtered in the Madrid Train Bombings. The promises by terrorists to kill three million Americans through any means possible. The Global War on Terror. The elections frenzy sweeping the Mideast.

    Think about it: even the senseless Barbra Streisand, in the recent open letter posted on her site, was willing to mention 9/11 and the implication of WMDs on American soil.

    Of course, her statement likening President Bush to Nazi Germany's Hermann Goering, was rendered unintentionally comic through its record-setting levels of irony.

    Consider the analogy: an immensely wealthy, ultra-liberal entertainer criticizes the Third Reich in, say, 1936. The outcome? She is either deported, executed, or sent to a concentration camp. Streisand's willingness to minimize the horrors of Nazi Germany would truly be ludicrous were the implications not so tragic.

    That Herbert could attempt a Reader's Digest version of the Iraq War without mentioning the war on terror, the lives lost on 9/11, Afghanistan, the elections sweeping the region, and the general topography of life in the early 21st century is proof of either utter bias or stupefying ignorance. I'm betting on the latter.
     

    Saturday, May 07, 2005

    Zarqawi's Morale Problem - Exclusive Memo



    Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueIraqi and US counter-terror operators recently captured a computer owned by insurgent COO Musab al-Zarqawi. Among the documents found on the hard-drive: a memo from Zarqawi to the insurgent rank-and-file related to wavering morale.

    Through an exclusive sharing agreement with a source inside the New York Times (hat tip: MoDo), I'm pleased to offer the only translated copy of the Zarqawi memo addressing the insurgency's morale problems:

    To: The Mujahaddin
    From: The Sheikh
    Subject: Morale

    I am greatly disappointed to hear reports of low morale among the mujahaddin. To address these problems, our Vice-President of Human Resources has promoted Sheikh Abdul Hassan al-Bharbouti to Director of Organizational Development.

    Sheikh al-Bharbouti will be responsible for training programs, martyrdom operations, and selected special missions against the American and Iraqi devils.

    To that end, he will be tasked with quantitatively addressing morale problems with our fighters:

    - Training programs: each fighter will be required to attend at least one week of training in any of the following areas: explosives preparation, bomb-belt construction, car-bomb wiring, fuses (beginning and advanced), and suicide-bombing methods
    - Martyrdom operations: to improve morale, the Sheikh will be selecting certain fighters to participate in martyrdom operations within the coming few days and weeks
    - Special missions: each fighter will be required to participate in special missions against the American devils including night operations and small-arms attacks against armored vehicles

    Please give the Sheikh your full cooperation in these efforts - they are certain to result in high morale as we dismantle the devil occupiers.

    Sheikh

     

    Thursday, May 05, 2005

    Can Bill Gates Slow Google Down?


    Picture credit: ZDnet Korea
    Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueFortune Magazine features a great article on the challenges Microsoft faces from Google's juggernaut. The amazing list of innovations -- think Google Maps, Google Mail, Blogger, and the nearly omniscient Google search engine -- are jaw-droppingly good.

    Okay, let me sidetrack my narrative for a moment. If you haven't experimented heavily with Google's search engine (and only a few serious geek losers like me have), you'll find that it is:

  • A calculator (type in 5250 * 1818 into the search box)

  • A dictionary (type in define staid)

  • An address and phone book (type in David Smith, Boston Mass)

  • A patent lookup engine (type in patent followed by a patent number)

  • A UPS/Fedex tracking system (type in a tracking number)

  • A stock-quotation device (type in GOOG)

  • An airport traffic checker (type in sfo airport)

  • An airline flight status system (type in a flight number like ual 134)

  • A spell-checker

  • A VIN -- vehicle identification number -- tracker (type in a VIN number)

  • An FAA airplane registration system

  • A UPC code lookup engine

  • An area-code cheat sheet (type in 404)

  • and so forth


  • Think it's hard for the other search engines to match up? One word: ayup.

    Google's method is to overwhelm the competition with technical innovation, giving lie to academic poseurs like Nicholas Carr, who claim that 'IT doesn't matter.' Google's IT innovation -- I mean order-of-magnitude leaps like Google Maps' use of AJAX -- has resulted in billions in market capitalization. And the same can be said for other IT innovators, even staid insurance companies like Progressive.

    Google spurs its innovation by encouraging scientists and engineers to devote 20% of their time to pet projects. Gems like Google News and Orkut sprung from 'hobby' sites created by creative entrepeneur-employees at G-ville.

    The latest? A downloadable tool that speeds up web surfing using Google's outrageously scalable (and - uhmm - Linux-based) infrastructure.

    This is where things get real, real risky for Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT).

    The desktop has always been Microsoft's to control. But small inroads -- like the acceleration engine and the desktop search product -- are encroaching on Gates' turf. And they're as welcome there as the Bloods are twelve blocks into Crips territory.

    To add to this ominous (well, ominous as far as Microsoft's shareholders are concerned) behavior, Google's rumblings towards the Mozilla/Firefox browser are -- at best -- worrisome. Because the browser has, for many classes of application, become the de facto desktop, the sonar pings are coming louder and faster at Gates' lakefront manse.

    Firefox's usage rates are already skyrocketing due to the pandemic of security issues with Internet Explorer: the unfortunately named IE trojan-hider called Browser Helper Objects (or BHO's, for short) are examples of egregious shortcomings in IE's security architecture.

    Now imagine Firefox tightly integrated with all of Google's offerings. And here's the kicker:

    A lightweight plug-in installer that instantly adds browser support for any of Google's newly hatched research projects

    I'll give you an example. Say you're starving - you were in meetings all day and missed lunch. You do a Google search (from the integrated Firefox/Google search bar) for pizza topeka. The browser gives you a list of pizza places and their phone-numbers... and also adds a Dial Now button that places the call for you. And it'll make a VoIP call if your computer is so equipped. And, yes, you need to place a voice-call to see if they have the jalapeno and banana special that you used to order in LA. Cool, eh?

    Imagine a browser that is tightly integrated with Google. A browser that is multi-platform: Linux, Windows, PocketPC, Symbian, Blackberry, etc. A browser that... becomes your operating system.

    No wonder MSFT's market cap hasn't budged since Google rose to prominence.

    In my estimation, Microsoft has to concentrate on one thing -- and one thing alone. And it's not security, though heaven knows that  remains a concern. Microsoft needs:

    Ease-of-use

    I'm not talking about making Outlook or Access or Excel easier to use (though products such as Access routinely get their asses kicked by products like Alpha Five, from tiny companies, due mostly to learning curve). No, I'm specifically focusing on IT ease-of-use. Reducing complexity. Making IT simple.

    Seen the Visual Studio .NET interface lately? If there were more windows -- all purportedly there to make life easier -- you'd have a skyscraper.

    Tried to deploy a .NET thick-client (WinForms) app? Talk about bringing on the pain. Yeah, I really want to make 80% of my users download the 25 Mb .NET runtime -- to get my 1 Mb app to run -- and hope the install takes. This is what Mark Lucovsky talked about when he said Microsoft no longer knew how to ship software.

    Seen a great piece of software out of MSFT lately? Maybe, just maybe, MSN search makes the grade. But that's a catch-up play... copying Google, which is no way to play offense.

    The bottom line is that Microsoft has to make their software idiot-proof. I know, I know, when you build more idiot-proof software, the world will catch up and build better idiots. But I think you get the flavor.

    When we tune a SQL Server installation, it shouldn't require a week and a gaggle of Avanade consultants. When we configure SharePoint, it should be so dead-nuts simple that a business analyst can handle it... easily. When we want to share an Excel spreadsheet over the web, it shouldn't require six different technologies and a project plan.

    These are simple concepts. Useful concepts. Concepts that translate to real dollars for organizations spending major moolah on IT. And it's a place that Microsoft had better start innovating... before Google takes a serious look at corporate IT.

    Fortune: Search and Destroy - Bill Gates is on a mission to build a Google killer
     

    Baseball Trivia



    Picture credit: Boston Red Sox
    J McGraw, C Mack, M Huggins, C Stengel, J McCarthy, W Alston, S Anderson, J TorreHere's a bit of baseball trivia: eight managers in the history of the game have won three or more World Championships. Can you name them? Hint: four of the eight managed the Yankees.

    For the answer, position your mouse cursor over the picture of the trophy.
     

    Wednesday, May 04, 2005

    CBS' Bob Schieffer: Unfair and unbalanced


    (Picture credit Tcho.ch - results of an image search for 'Schieffer'!)
    Excel-web sharing of spreadsheetsIf you thought CBS' talking heads would at least make an effort at a little political balance, you'd be wrong. And if you thought CBS would lighten up on the Bush administration -- and the GOP in general -- you'd be wrong. Dead wrong.

    Let me give you a few sounds bites from CBS anchor Bob Schieffer's appearance on the Don Imus show this morning:

    WMD. Iraq. Things getting worse, not better. Vietnam. Bodybags.

    That's the gist. Put simply, phrases pitched straight from John Kerry's talking points memo distributed in, what, October? Can't someone change Schieffer's teleprompter?

    Of course, Schieffer neglected any mention that another senior Al Qaeda leader was just captured. And he couldn't find time to report that Saddam's nephew, was nabbed: a major financier and director of insurgent operations, according to reports. Nephew Hussein was discovered in the briar patch of a giant weapons cache, but I suppose that's not newsworthy.

    Things are getting bad for CBS when even the Guardian, yes, the staunch, leftmost bastion of Europe, states that, "perhaps the neocons got it right in the Middle East.".

    You'd think even Schieffer -- or at least his pointy-headed bosses at CBS -- would be coming around. A little balance might improve the ratings. And, heaven knows, it might attract some of those middle-of-the-road viewers who departed in droves when disgraced ex-anchor Dan Rather drowned in a sea of blinking GIF files.

    But, no, Schieffer went on to predict that Rep. Delay was going to go down in flames. Though it now appears that fat-cat lobbyists like Abrahamoff were paying travel expenses for both Democrats and Republicans.

    And Schieffer couldn't find time to discuss Ms. Hypocrisy '05, Nancy Pelosi, who is now utterly silent about said travel issues. "She demanded an investigation into [Majority Leader] Tom DeLay, but hasn't said a word about these Democrats who have done the same thing," said Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC).

    Maybe someday Schieffer can ask his staff to look into all Congressional travel expenses, so the public could determine just how frequently these jaunts are practiced. But that would require exposing Democrats, and not just Republicans, so I wouldn't hold your breath.

    Until then, CBS has all the relevance of Leonard Nimoy at the Grammys.
     

    Despair


    Picture credit: Despair.com
    Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueThe inimitable Despair.com is back in the news again, albeit through a mention on CNet's blog. I don't mean to demean media outlets that have turned to blogging -- least of all CNet, because they do a good job -- but they exude a slight odor of late-comer to the whole blogging party.

    Despair is the firm who markets "de-motivational" posters - the bizarro-universe version of those classic posters so prevalent in cube farms. Here are a couple of Despair's good ones:

  • Motivation - If a pretty poster and a cute saying are all it takes to motivate you, you probably have a very easy job. The kind robots will be doing soon.

  • Get to work - You aren't being paid to believe in the power of your dreams.

  • Achievement - You can do anything you can set your mind to when you have vision, determination and an endless supply of expendable labor.

  • Sounds like Carly was working on some of this material. Anyhow, here's a few I just came up with:

  • Losing - Because your best will, frankly, never be good enough.

  • Effort - If, at the end of the day, you can say you gave it your best shot, you will be - a liar.

  • Focus - Don't concern yourself with "goals". The obstacles in your way are insurmountable.

  • Innovation - Creativity is easiest when you can steal ideas from underlings.

  • Anyhow, the funniest thing on Despair's site relates to the frowny emoticon :-( . They set off a firestorm of controversy in '01 when they (really) trademarked the frowny and claimed that everyone who used it had to pay royalties. Of course, the whole royalty thing was tongue-in-cheek... but some didn't get it.

    DALLAS, TX - February 5th, 2001 - Individuals across the globe have registered their outrage and despair at the recent announcement by Despair, Inc. that they had been awarded a registered trademark for the 'frowny' emoticon by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and that the company intended to sue anyone who used the trademarked symbol in email.

    The firestorm of controversy even led to an entire newsthread discussing the lawsuit on the highly respected tech-news site Slashdot, which in turn inspired a subsequent story by the Gray Lady herself, The New York Times.

    But the outrage wasn't limited to the English speaking world. Newspapers and websites across the globe voiced all manner of bemusement, confusion, disdain and disgust over the trademark and lawsuit.

    In the face of international public outcry, company founder and COO Dr. E.L. Kersten announced today that he was prepared to offer a compromise to the global Internet community -- one that would allow for the continued legal use of the symbol in email.

    Kersten explained both a change of heart and of policy in a press release...


    And some poor, gullible losers (oops, I mean "L" is for "Love") even assumed that Despair was scanning all Internet email traffic for trademark violations. Some of the letters they received were classic.

    From: Mark (removed) <(removed)@(removed).com>
    To: media@despair.com
    Subject: Frowny Face suit
    Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2001 09:15:50

    To whom it may concern,

    If you have searched any of my mail, send me confirmation of that fact immediately. Under consumer protection laws, and the Freedom of Information Act, you are required to confirm or deny that you have a record of searching my mail. My two addresses are (removed)@(removed).com and mark@(removed).

    Failure to comply is punishable by law.

    If you have searched any of my mail, you have illegally searched me and are in violation of civil rights laws.

    Sincerely,
    Mark (removed)
    -------
    From: "Dr. E.L. Kersten"
    To: Mark (removed) <(removed)@(removed).com>
    Subject: Re: Frowny Face suit
    Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2001 11:34:23
    Mr. (removed):

    While we did not find either of your referenced email addresses in our list of 7,000,000 some odd citizens who have violated our trademark via email, we'll take your panicked entreaty as a confession of probable guilt and make sure to keep an eye on your future communications.

    Attentively yours,

    E.L. Kersten, Ph.D.

    -------

    From: Paul (removed)
    To: feedback@despair.com
    Subject:
    Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2001 14:40:27

    Best site I've enjoyed in some time. I was alerted to it by a bulletin board discussion about the frowning emoticon lawsuit. Out of 31 posts, one person "got it."

    Thanks!
    -------
    From: "Dr. E.L. Kersten"
    To: Paul (removed)
    Subject: Re:
    Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2001 19:01:47

    No offense intended- but it may be time to start hanging around in smarter bulletin boards.

    Regards,
    E.L.


    News.blog: Despair in the Air
     

    Tuesday, May 03, 2005

    Oh, Those  Dangers of Outsourcing, Part III



    Excel-web sharing of spreadsheetsIn April, insurance firm Northwestern Mutual proudly announced to the world that it routinely ships policyholders' personal data overseas to save money on IT costs. The venue was Gartner's Outsourcing Conference.

    NM CIO Barbara Piehler explained the rationale: they weren't getting enough out of offshore contractors because of an internal restriction on shipping customer data offshore. And that, "limits what you can do offshore." So senior executives removed the internal obstacle to allow customer data to transit overseas.

    But some federal regulators believe that shipping customer data overseas carries significant privacy risks. The FDIC noted last year that service firms in the US adhere to a completely different standard than those overseas. Who vets the outsourcers' employees, for instance?

    Worse yet, Northwestern Mutual hasn't informed its 3 million policyholders that their personal data can be viewed by offshore workers. Phil Fersht at the Yankee Group is not enamored with this practice. "Beyond... ethical responsibility, you don't want your customers to have a nasty surprise if something goes wrong."

    In my opinion, NM is undertaking a huge set of risks for what appear to be minimal rewards:

  • Some customers, certain to be aware of the offshoring trend, will not be pleased to find out that their personal data is transiting back and forth to India. They will likely change insurers once they discover this nugget of information.

  • There's been no explanation of any vetting process for the outsourcer's employees (e.g., a background check that would be routine in the U.S.). The risk is that the NM will be victim to fraudulent transactions that are very difficult to detect. The recent Citibank call center fraud, in which twelve persons tied to the outsourcing firm were arrested, is a case in point.

  • The targeting of Indian IT outsourcing companies by terrorists raises the specter of other, even more serious risks.


  • There are rumblings in certain state capitols, as well as Washington, that something needs to be done about this practice. Here's hoping that regulators and legislators deal with this issue quickly and comprehensively. Consumers shouldn't have to worry that the next ChoicePoint-style privacy conflagration will begin burning in Bangalore.

    Anyone up for a blogswarm?

    Information Week: The hard road to offshoring
     

    Rafsanjani


    Picture credit: Pritchett Cartoons
    Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueHashemi Rafsanjani. The man believed to be the frontrunner for the presidency of Iran. A man dedicated to acquiring nuclear technology. A man who threatens use of nuclear weapons against Israel.

    On April 8, Iranian TV aired Rafsanjani's Friday speech at Tehran University:

    Rafsanjani: The teachings of Jesus do not exist in the Christian world today. They cannot serve as popes and spread the teachings of Jesus, and at the same time disregard the crimes that America commits all over the world. It's true that they opposed the war in Iraq, but America's crimes aren't limited to that. What America does all over the world in the name of the war on terrorism, the way in which it plunders the resources of peoples in needy and backwards countries, its aggression in international organizations, which belong to all of the world's peoples, and the inflammatory propaganda it uses in order to undermine other countries – all of these certainly contradict the spirit of the teachings of Jesus. Jesus compared the money-grubbing oppressors of his time to man-eating vipers and confronted them, so how can the Pope's functionaries remain indifferent when they see the oppression committed by the international arrogance? Therefore, a heavy responsibility lies on their shoulders. They should raise a great outcry against America. They should say to the Americans: Through the crimes you commit you disgrace Jesus, because you use the names of Jesus and the church to win over many votes in the American public.

    Crowd: Death to America

    Death to America

    Death to America

    Death to America

    Death to America


    MEMRI: Former Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani
     

    Monday, May 02, 2005

    Financial Ruin: It's Automatic



    Picture credit: Elder Law St. Louis
    Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueTime Magazine's Blog of the Year continues its run of outstanding commentary. John Hinderaker posts the following ominous missive on the failure of either party to get serious about addressing out-of-control entitlement spending.

    And, yes, the MSM/DNC is worse -- much worse -- than the GOP because they fail to even acknowledge the problem. It used to be that both parties would step up to challenges together to confront true threats to the United States.

    But the Democratic leadership is no longer acting in the best interest of Americans. They are, instead, on a course of obstructionism for obstructionism's sake. And that spells the continued, catastrophic meltdown of the Democratic party. Read on:

    Entitlements are devouring the federal budget and, if they are not checked, will inevitably dictate higher taxes and a downward spiral of slow growth and unemployment. That's the way it looks to me, anyway. And no one is doing anything about it. The "cuts" proposed by the Republicans are so trivial as to be merely symbolic, as is the ritual faux-outrage expressed by the Democrats in response. Dafydd ab Hugh dissects the latest round of fake "cuts" and fake "outrage":

    Those nasty, brutish, and short Republicans are once again trying to take the pills that Grandma needs right out of her mouth, according to the Associated Press. Here is the scareline of the AP article:

    House Passes Budget That Cuts Medicaid

    Oh, no -- cutting Medicaid! Granny will have to choose between antibiotics and bread! The first two paragraphs make clear the perfidy of the Republicans:

    WASHINGTON (AP) - The House narrowly passed a $2.6 trillion budget Thursday evening that would cut back the Medicaid health care program for the poor for the first time since 1997 in a step toward trimming federal deficits.

    The 214-211 vote approved a blueprint that instructs lawmakers to freeze or cut spending in many domestic programs outside defense and homeland security and restrain farm, student loan, pension and some other government programs that grow automatically from year to year....


    So what are the specifics? How much will the dastardly Republicans slash from Granny’s health care?

    The budget would shave automatically increasing benefit programs by $35 billion over five years while also cutting taxes by as much as $106 billion over the same period.

    Medicaid, the federal-state health program for needy and disabled Americans, gets marked for the single biggest change, a $10 billion reduction over four years....


    Wait a moment... the new budget plan would shave the “automatically increasing” program? What exactly does that mean? Here is the kicker:

    Without any change, the Congressional Budget Office expects the government to spend $191 billion on Medicaid next year and more than $1.1 trillion over the five years covered by the budget.

    In other words, we originally anticipated spending an average of more than $220 billion per year over the next five years... which is an average increase of nearly $30 billion per year (15%) over the 2006 budget; but under the Republican plan, this would be reduced by $10 billion over four years, or an average of $2.5 billion per year.

    In other words, the “cuts” to Medicaid under the new budget would mean that instead of increasing the Medicaid budget by $30 billion per year -- we’ll only increase it by $27.5 billion per year!

    To Nancy Pelosi, that’s a pay cut so staggering it amounts to “an assault on our values!”


    Any truthful discussion of entitlement spending seems to be impossible. So the escalator just keeps on rising. It's automatic.


    Powerline: Financial Ruin: It's Automatic
     

    Scanning Cargo Containers



    Excel-web, collaborative sharing of spreadsheets over the InternetIn a recent blog post, I critiqued an anonymous column in CSO Online. Its basic premise was that we've spent too much money for too few results in the area of homeland security. One of its strawmen indicated that -- because we're only searching 3% of containers that enter the country -- it would be impossible to search significantly more, thus we should simply not bother. We should spend the money on reducing the deficit. Or a giant block party for the entire country on July 4th. Or something like that.

    Anyhow, among other things, I pointed out that a few dollars sensibly invested in container-scanning technologies could provide a dramatically increased capability for securing ports of entry. Sure enough, I recently noticed the following new cargo-scanner:

    Container Inspection

    * Enables the terminal to scan high volumes of containers in normal traffic.
    * Provides useful, timely data to help identify and inspect high-risk containers.
    * Integrates data from many sources, including legacy and third-party systems.
    * Increases throughput by collecting and storing data quickly for later analysis.
    * Can serve as a central component of a layered, comprehensive security solution.
    * Open-architecture design facilitates integration and expansion.

    ...ICIS can collect data from cargo-scanning systems throughout the terminal, including legacy and third-party systems... [and] offers these high-speed scanning capabilities:

    * Gamma ray imaging: The VACIS® gamma ray imaging system provides radiographic images of container contents.
    * Radiation scanning: The EXPLORANIUM™ Radiation Portal Monitor (RPM) provides a graphic profile of radioactivity levels inside the container.
    * OCR: OCR portal system technology automatically identifies containers to enable ICIS to integrate data for each container.


    Integrated Container Inspection System (ICIS)
     

    Moderately priced computing: 14 May 1952



    Excel-web sharing of spreadsheetsThis is some old-school computing. Ed Thelen's site represents a cyber-museum of antiquated and long-forgotten computing technology and is well worth visiting.

    Until recently, all commercially available general purpose automatic digital computers were large and cost many hundreds of thousands of dollars. Within the past year, however, a number of manufacturers have developed smaller, more compact (usually slower) automatic computers for sale at less than one hundred thousand dollars. Nearly all of these smaller computers use magnetic-drum storage. With this drastic reduction in the cost, it has become possible for agencies with modest budgets to consider acquiring such machines. Interested agencies, therefore, can evaluate the now available machines to determine which, if any, can best satisfy their scientific-computing or data-handling needs...


    COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE GENERAL-PURPOSE ELECTRONIC DIGITAL COMPUTERS OF MODERATE PRICE
     

    Who is the blogosphere's favorite columnist?



    (Picture credit Political Friendster)
    Excel-web sharing of spreadsheetsThe invaluable RWN solicited the opinions of 200 right-of-center bloggers, asking the question: who's your favorite columnist? My personal favorites? Steyn, Krauthammer and Goldberg. Visit RWN for the entire list, but here's the top ten:

    10) Peggy Noonan (30)
    9) James Lileks (36) -- 1
    8) Ann Coulter (45) -- 4
    6) Michelle Malkin (48) -- 1
    6) George Will (48) -- 1
    5) Thomas Sowell (58) -- 3
    4) Victor Davis Hanson (72) -- 3
    3) Charles Krauthammer (75) -- 4
    2) Jonah Goldberg (76) -- 3
    1) Mark Steyn (96) -- 24


    RWN: Right-Of-Center Bloggers Select Their Favorite Columnists
     

    Camera Phones to the Rescue



    Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueThose who claim that camera phones are a privacy disaster waiting to happen... have probably never been bitten by a Brazilian Wandering Spider.

    If you happen to come across giant spiders in your kitchen every now and then, you might want to pay attention to this one. A British chef bitten by the world's deadliest arachnid was saved after snapping a photo of it with his camera phone.

    According to a story in the Times Online, Matthew Stevens was bitten twice on the hand by a Brazilian Wandering Spider as he cleaned behind the freezer of his pub. The creature, not generally associated with life in England, is believed to have arrived as a stowaway in a box of bananas.

    Before the swelling and dizziness hit, the 23-year-old snapped a picture of his assailant to prove to friends just how big it was (very big--about 5 inches).

    Later, as Stevens' condition deteriorated and doctors fought to save his life, they were able to send the picture to experts at the Bristol Zoo, who identified the spider and told doctors which type of anti-venom was needed.


    Camera phone saves man from deadly spider
     

    Sunday, May 01, 2005

    Guess-the-Google



    Picture credit: Grant Robinson
    Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueGrant Robinson's got some serious Flash skills. Noted for his Scribble app, which resembles a simple, thick-client painting program, he's also come up with a unique game based upon Google images.

    Guess-the-Google presents you with a set of images that were generated using a single word query of Google's Image Search. Your job? Guess the word used to generate those image results. Entertaining and maddening, it's fun for the whole family. I laughed. I cried. It very nearly changed my life.

    Guess-the-Google
     

    Saturday, April 30, 2005

    Getting Rid of the Highly Irritating 'Swat the Fly' Ad


    Picture credit: BBA
    Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueThere's an ad floating around the web called 'Swat the Fly'. It's a rude piece of offal, which emanates a hideous buzzing noise every few seconds. Here's how to rid yourself of this dung, which is slightly less useful than an integrated ashtray in a child safety seat.

    If you know what you're doing, edit your hosts file, which can be found in your Windows folder. You can edit the file using Windows' Notepad. Remember to make a backup in case you mess anything up. And, no, I explicitly disclaim any liability for anything you do to your machine.

    Here's what my file looks like. The line with tribalfusion in it will suppress the fly from hell.

    #
    127.0.0.1 a.tribalfusion.com


    Here's what the rest of the Internet thinks of this horrid secretion. That some marketer got the okay to distribute this Flash-based diarrhea is truly frightening.
     

    When the Lawyers Come Around



    Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueMy friend Pete recently changed jobs, leaving IBM's Workplace team. He's the flighty type, as his new role at Kubi Software will be his third job in twenty years.

    At IBM, Pete was a senior technical lead responsible for various aspects of the Notes/Domino product offering. And when he left, he blogged a few closing thoughts on his IBM career: what attracted him to IBM (a perceived career path for technical folks) and why he ended up leaving the organization (perhaps that the technical career path wasn't quite as he'd envisioned).

    In any event, after reading these posts (and pointing a few of my compadres to them), I was going to write a post about technical career paths and how they should (but seldom do) work.

    Lo and behold, the posts were gone. When I emailed Pete about them, he told me about the phone call and email he'd received. Something to the effect: please don't disclose our proprietary and confidential information including opinions on our development process. So Pete obliged and pulled the two entries related to IBM.

    In my opinion, there wasn't anything a bit proprietary and confidential in the posts. Just some honest impressions regarding IBM's management approach and how the technical career path could have functioned. In my opinion, IBM senior management should spend more time grokking unvarnished impressions from talented senior staff... and less time quashing criticism. But that's just me.

    Update: Pete writes, "...one factual error - it was my previous post about the interview question..." that turned out to be an issue. Nonetheless, I'll stand by my impression regarding senior management.

    * * *

    As an aside, a brief foray onto the Kubi website indicates: (a) that they sell email workflow and collaboration software (definitely an interesting area); and (b) they secured $8 million in venture funding (which means they must be executing diligently on their product and marketing roadmap). Sometimes I really miss Massachusetts.
     

    Friday, April 29, 2005

    Was Integrating IE and Windows Explorer a Good Idea? Part II



    Excel-web sharing of spreadsheetsThe discussion on the JOS forum related to whether Windows was poorly designed or not continues. Myron takes the general position that Windows was not poorly designed and that most security vulnerabilities in Windows are based upon buffer overflows. I disagree. Here's the latest:
    (Picture credit R C Vaughn)

    #1 List a security vulnerability that was caused by poor design. So far you haven't. All you've done is make vague statements.

    Follow me here...

    #2 How is the registry a security vulnerability? And how is it poor design? I wish Linux had a registry.

    Examples: how is it that malware can write to the registry and secrete away a myriad of automatic, surreptitious startup options? Wouldn't it make sense (at least) to let the user in on that little secret? Extra credit - how is it that the default address book was programmatically accessible without some sort of authentication step, the cause of scores of email worms and untold labor hours?

    #3 While one could argue that COM is very complicated, I don't think you could call it "poor design". If you think it is, please cite some specific examples.

    It's a horrible design. Simply put - why do you think SOA/SOAP/UDDI/etc., for example, have de facto replaced *COM* and CORBA as the leading method for marshalling services (even localhost services)? Because *COM* and CORBA were so great? No, because they were overly complex and nightmarishly difficult to work with: i.e., poorly designed.

    #4 "DLL hell" is more the fault of crappy installers than anything.

    And why, then, has Microsoft dramatically evolved DLL handling by the OS over the years? It's been a huge point of weakness in the OS and you should readily admit it. They do.

    #5 No, browser helper objects aren't a security vulnerability. BHO's don't magically install themselves. They are installed by a user after clicks Yes. If you disapprove of an extensible browser interface, then you must really hate Mozilla plug-ins.

    And how does the average user list the installed BHO's - most of which are pure malware? How about removing them? If your Mom has a BHO polluting her machine, what's your recommendation for getting rid of it? Some third-party product? BHO's are, flat out, a security _nightmare_. Poor design: think CRUD without the RD and you've got BHO's.

    #6 Mandatory access control is certainly an improvement, although I don't think it's quite ready for mainstream deployment yet. It is available in Windows via 3rd party add-ons. Either way, you can't cite this as proof that Linux is somehow "better deisgned" than Windows, since this is a fairly new addition to the Linux kernel.

    Please name a third-party Win32 product that adds MAC - I've been looking for one and have not found a thing. I sincerely would like to see one for a project I'm working on.

    #7 I could argue that Microsoft's ACL and Active Directory system allows for far more granularity than Unix's UGO system.

    The ACL/ACE structure is quite powerful and I would agree that in many ways it is superior to the Unices approach. That said, the relative merits of ACLs are tangential to the overall security of a box... compared with, say, MAC/RBAC integrated at the kernel level.


    JOS: An ongoing discussion
     

    Thursday, April 28, 2005

    Introducing One of the "Seven Judicial Fanatics"



    Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueIf you're interested in knowing a little bit more about the "seven Judicial fanatics" (or so says "Crazy Al" Gore), I located a brief biography of Janice Rogers Brown on Wikipedia. This is an excerpt.

    Janice Rogers Brown is the daughter of a family of Alabama sharecroppers. She received her B.A. from California State University in Sacramento in 1974, and her Juris Doctorate from UCLA in 1977. She has now been on the California Supreme Court for nine years.

    She wrote the majority opinion upholding an amendment to the California Constitution prohibiting affirmative action for women and minorities and dissented from an opinion striking down a parental consent law for abortions.

    Brown has also surprised some conservatives with traditionally liberal positions on criminal sentencing and freedom of speech. She was the lone justice to contend that a provision in the California Constitution requires drug offenders be given treatment instead of jail time.


    Ayup. She's got judicial fanatic written all over her.

    Wikipedia: Janice Rogers Brown