Daynotes Journal Week of 17 February 2003 Latest Update : Sunday, 23 February 2003 08:31 -0500

Monday, 17 February 2003

[Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week]
[Daynotes Journal Forums] [HardwareGuys.com Forums] [TechnoMayhem.com Forums]

10:19 - Snow day. We didn't get nailed like those to the northeast of us, but we do have a couple inches of sleet and ice on the ground. When I went out this morning to get the paper (I was surprised it was delivered), it looked as though we had a couple inches of snow cover. But when I stepped on it, I didn't leave any footprints. Not good. The morning commute is likely to be a mess. Barbara decided to stay home from work today, which relieved me.

We were lucky not to have lost power. All day yesterday, with freezing rain falling and 15 to 25 MPH winds, we were expecting the lights to go out. The morning paper said there had been limited outages, with only about 50,000 homes having lost power throughout the region. Compared to the December ice storm, when 2,000,000 homes in North Carolina lost power, that's not bad at all. I'm sure there were more power outages after press time, but even so this area appears to have been lucky.

We had originally planned to spend the holiday weekend visiting our friends the Bilbreys up in Washington, DC. It's just as well we had to cancel that for other reasons. The news reports say they got up to 25" of snow up there.

I have to decide what to do this year about tax preparation software. One thing is sure. Intuit will never get any more money from me. When I bought TurboTax last year I didn't realize it would be the last time ever that I bought the product. I almost gave up on TurboTax several years ago. That time, I bought it on-line directly from Intuit, after carefully checking system requirements. They listed Windows NT4 as supported, but when I paid for and downloaded TurboTax, I found that it wouldn't install on NT4. I sent a nastygram to tech support, and their answer was something like, "Oh, yeah. It doesn't run on NT. We really should update the page on our site that claims it does." Grrrrr. They did at least refund my money. After looking at alternatives that year, I decided that I didn't have any real choice, so I ended up building a Windows 9X system especially to run TurboTax and then running over to Office Depot to buy a copy.

But this time Intuit has gone too far. Even mainstream publications, which have advertising money at stake, have raised a red flag about TurboTax this year. See here and here, for example. All of the mainstream publications try to be "fair" by pointing out that Intuit is making changes to eliminate the worst problems. But that ignores the real problem, which is fundamental. Copy-protecting a tax preparation program in any fashion is simply unacceptable. Period.

Intuit really shot itself in the foot. They apparently assumed that because many people grudgingly accept the product activation and Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) features in Windows XP and Office XP they would be willing to accept the same limitations in TurboTax. What Intuit failed to realize is that most people have no realistic alternative to using Microsoft products. The same is not true for TurboTax. There are at least two mainstream competitors to TurboTax. In terms of features and functionality, neither is as good as TurboTax. But TaxCut imports old TurboTax data, and is probably what I'll go with.

[Top]

Tuesday, 18 February 2003

[Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week]
[Daynotes Journal Forums] [HardwareGuys.com Forums] [TechnoMayhem.com Forums]

11:10 - Ximian Evolution is one of those applications that I really, really want to like. I'm almost desperate to like it. It looks much like Microsoft Outlook, and has some of the same functionality. In particular, it includes an integrated PIM. But Evolution, like many of the OSS applications I try to run on Linux (and some, like Mozilla, even on Windows) seems crash-prone.

I'd used Ximian Red Carpet a couple days ago to make sure my Red Hat 8.0 system, including Evolution, was completely up to date. Yesterday, I fired up Evolution to play with it a bit. No applications other than Evolution and a couple of terminal windows were running. I recall exactly what I did:

1. Started Evolution using the desktop icon I'd installed previously
2. At the Inbox, told Evolution to get new mail, which it did
3. Deleted two spam messages, leaving two real messages unread in the inbox.
4. Viewed each of those real messages in the preview pane.
5. Clicked on the Calendar folder in the left-hand folder pane. There were no entries, and I changed nothing.
6. Clicked on the Task folder in the left-hand folder pane. There were no entries and I changed nothing.
7. Clicked on the +-sign next to Other Contacts to expand it.
8. Clicked on the Bigfoot folder, in which I changed nothing.
9. Clicked on the Contacts folder, whereupon Evolution highlighted that folder name but displayed only blank space in the main pane. At that point, Evolution was well and truly locked up, and I had done nothing whatsoever to cause it.
10. Clicked on the X "close" icon at the upper right of the Evolution window. It zipped down as though I had minimized it, but left an exact copy on the desktop.
11. Clicked on the File menu, hoping that I could close it that way. There was no response.
12. At that point, I was thinking I had a copy of ksnapshot minimized, so I clicked on the far right item down on the task bar. As it turned out, I'd forgotten that I'd closed ksnapshot, so what I'd clicked on was a terminal window. That popped up (well, "slithered up" would be a better description) leaving the on-screen gubbage shown in the screen shot.
13. I used run -> ksnapshot to fire up the screen capture utility, and told it to grab the screen. Rather than disappearing during the capture as it usually does, a zombie ksnapshot window remained visible, and in fact was grabbed by ksnapshot itself.

At that point, after literally a full two minutes or more, the error message below finally popped up. Evolution died, but it sure took it long enough.

This is not the first time Evolution has crashed on me. In the pre-1.0 versions it crashed extremely frequently. In the 1.0.3, it crashed very frequently. In 1.0.8, it crashed frequently. I've just started playing with 1.2.2, and it's already crashed, without me even doing anything. This doesn't bode well. My use of Evolution has been very limited, mainly just playing around. I'd estimate it crashes and burns more than once per hour of usage. That's simply ridiculous. These crashes have occurred on several different systems, all of which are stable hardware-wise and seem stable with Linux and most other Linux applications. Evolution has crashed under Red Hat 7.2, 7.3, and 8.0, not to mention the 8.0 beta. It's crashed under Mandrake 8.1 and 9.0. These crashes frequently occur with default installs, when the only change I've made is to enter my mailserver information.

As far as I can see, Evolution is pre-Alpha quality software. I don't intend to use it again until it's a lot more stable. Mozilla does crash occasionally (so far, always under Windows), but in general it's much more stable. Mozilla Mail doesn't have the integrated PIM, but I've been living without that for months now anyway, so I think I'll standardize on Mozilla Mail under Linux. 

And speaking of Linux crashes, I awoke this morning to find that my entire network had fallen over. I couldn't get to email or the web from my den system, and soon found that I couldn't even access Windows Networking shares on other local systems. My first thought was that my hub had shot craps, but when I went into my office it was lit up normally. I switched the KVM over to the Mandrake 9 Linux box that is my gateway/firewall, and found there was no video signal. It had locked up again. This is beginning to annoy me.

I don't blame Linux. When Brian Bilbrey was visiting here last, he offered to set up a Linux gateway/firewall machine. At first I thought I'd just have him use the existing NT4 box that was running WinGate, but then I decided I'd rather keep that machine unplugged but available in case I had problems with the new gateway. That meant coming up with another machine, and the only convenient one sitting around was my former den system, a 750 MHz Duron box. Silly me. I decided to take a chance on it, even though it had had some stability problems under Windows 2000. The box has a decent power supply and decent memory, so that's not the problem. What I suspect is the problem is the motherboard, which uses a VIA chipset.

I've never had a VIA-based system that I considered to be in even remotely the same class stability-wise as systems that use Intel, AMD, or nVIDIA chipsets. Heck, even the SiS735-based motherboards are a lot more stable than VIA-based motherboards. Every time I've used a VIA-based system, I've later regretted it. Perhaps their newest chipsets are better, but I'm tired of being a guinea pig. At this point, I'm ready just to write off VIA entirely.

I think what I'll do is build a nice, stable Intel 815-based system, using an older Pentium III, a good power supply, and Crucial memory. The next time Brian visits, or the next time we go up to visit them, I'll sweet-talk Brian into building me a new gateway/firewall on a box with known-good hardware. In the meantime, this VIA-based box is living on borrowed time. If it crashes too many more times, I may just improve its ventilation with 12 gauge rifled slugs.

Tom's Hardware has posted a fascinating article that benchmarks 65 processors, from the 100 MHz Pentium to the 3.06 GHz Pentium 4. The fastest processors we have around here are the 2.53 GHz and 2.8 GHz Pentium 4s and the Athlon XP 2600+, all of which are very near the top of Tom's charts. But we also have slower systems, including Barbara's main system (a 1 GHz PIII/Coppermine), my den system (a 750 MHz PIII/Coppermine), and the Gott verdammt 750 MHz Duron system that runs my gateway/firewall. All of those are fast enough for what they do, which is of course the main burden on Intel and AMD right now. It's pretty hard to sell your most expensive, fastest processors when your least expensive, slowest processors are fast enough to do the job.

This with regard to importing Turbo Tax data:

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: TaxCut imports TurboTax data...
Date: Tue, 18 Feb 2003 09:00:09 EST
From: Morgno
To: thompson@ttgnet.com

/But TaxCut imports old TurboTax data, and is probably what I'll go with.

/I decided to use Taxcut because of the DRM in TurboTax even before I knew it was a boot sector virus. When I went to import from last years TurboTax files, I received a nonsensical error message complaining that what appeared to be last years TaxCut file was not found. After quite a bit of searching, I found an admission on TaxCut's web site that it can't import certain TurboTax files if they're "too big". It advises you to delete some data in one of the address fields of the TurboTax file. Then it imported it just fine. You'd think they would issue an update to fix the problem. For one file, I just blanked the CA in an address. For another file, I had to shorten a stree address too.

Mike

Thanks. I will keep that in mind.

And some Linux-related mail...

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: What you said you wanted.
Date: 17 Feb 2003 14:04:04 -0800
From: Roland Dobbins
To: thompson@ttgnet.com

http://www.xpde.com/

Thanks. Not what I wanted, especially. I'm actually pretty happy with the standard Red Hat 8.0 interface. But this is one of the things that Linux needs to reach critical mass with Windows desktop users. I haven't looked at anything but the screenshots, but if this is as close to Windows XP as it appears to be, I think it'd be a good idea for Red Hat and the other Linux distros to include it as a setup option--"Make my desktop look just like Windows XP".

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Defrag for Linux
Date: Fri, 14 Feb 2003 08:37:30 -0800
From: John Bartley
To: robert@ttgnet.com

The Defrag for Linux below may be of interest. Been using O&O Defrag on NT and 2000 on about 200 machines for several years with _no_ problems.. more than I could say for Diskkeeper.

http://www.oo-software.com/

Thanks.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: KStars, a Desktop Planetarium for KDE
Date: Fri, 14 Feb 2003 19:30:44 +0100
From: David Thorarinsson
To: thompson@ttgnet.com

FYI - no reply needed.

Thought you would be interested.

http://edu.kde.org/kstars/

Best regards,

/Dave T.

Thanks.

[Top]

Wednesday, 19 February 2003

[Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week]
[Daynotes Journal Forums] [HardwareGuys.com Forums] [TechnoMayhem.com Forums]

10:37 - It seems the Laci Peterson case may be coming to a head. From the first, it's been pretty clear that the cops suspect that her husband, Scott, murdered her. They're probably right. They usually are. But it's also been pretty clear that they don't have sufficient evidence to arrest and charge Scott Peterson. Ask any cop and you'll learn that quite often the cops know with absolute certainty who did something, but can't prove it. When that's the case, I don't doubt that 99.99% of the time the cops have it right.

What I don't like about this case is that the cops appear to be harassing Scott Peterson, who is after all presumed innocent until proven guilty. I suspect they're frustrated. They "know" he did it, but they can't find enough evidence to bring charges. I sympathize with them, and with Laci Peterson's family, but the rules of evidence are there for good reason. Although the cops insist that Peterson is not a suspect, that is simply a cynical workaround. If Scott Peterson were a suspect, the rules change, making things more difficult for the cops. So they insist he is not a suspect despite the fact that he clearly is not just a suspect, but probably their only suspect.

But what is going on is harassment, pure and simple. They confiscated the truck Scott Peterson owned at the time Laci Peterson disappeared. Fine. It was right for them to do that. They needed to run forensic tests. But having run those forensic tests, they should either have returned the truck, which Scott Peterson needs to earn his living, or they should have charged him. They did neither. Scott Peterson later sold Laci Peterson's SUV in order to buy a replacement for the truck the police had confiscated. He bought that truck five weeks after Laci's disappearance, and now the police have confiscated that truck as well. On what basis? Do they really believe that Scott Peterson used that truck to move Laci Peterson's body five weeks after the fact? Or are they simply harassing Scott Peterson, attempting to prevent him from earning a living? This really stinks.

Either charge Scott Peterson or stop harassing him. It's almost certain that Laci Peterson is dead and buried in an unmarked grave. I'm willing to believe that Scott Peterson probably killed her. But the burden of proof is on the state to prove Peterson guilty, not on Peterson to prove himself innocent. This harassment needs to stop, and it needs to stop right now.

Someone asked me the other day if I was changing my prediction for the commencement of hostilities with Iraq. Despite all the protests and diplomatic maneuvering over the last couple of weeks, I'm going to stick with my original prediction that the air campaign will begin 22 February and the ground campaign during the new moon a week later. If I'm wrong, I suspect it'll be by only a month. The next good opportunity will be the week or so leading up to the new moon on 1 April. Whether the attack commences in late February or late March has less to do with anti-war protests and diplomatic blathering than with the state of military preparation. A month from now, the French will still be sanctimoniously gumming things up, and not much else will have changed. If the US does wait a month, they will do so simply in the hopes they can isolate the French diplomatically and get a UN mandate for war with Iraq. I think the chances of that happening are very small, and I suspect the US realizes that. If our forces are ready, and I think they are, the time to start the ball rolling is now, not later.

14:07 - FoxNews reports that a German court has sentenced Mohamed Atta to 15 years. Let's see. He was instrumental in killing more than 3,000 people. That comes to less than 44 hours for each person he killed. Sounds reasonable to me. I can think of quite a number of people I'd be happy to kill if the penalty were only 44 hours each. Spammers in particular would no longer be safe. I'd be willing to devote 44 hours a month to rid the world of spammers. Well, perhaps that's a bit much. Say 44 hours a quarter. Still, that means I could shoot four spammers dead every year. If thousands of others were willing to make the same sacrifice, we'd soon have no spammers. A caution, though. If you decide to start killing spammers, make sure to do it in Germany. Most countries have more civilized laws.

Perhaps Germany should reconsider. They did sentence him to the maximum possible term, although that must seem incredibly short to any reasonable person. Hanging the bastard slowly would have been nice, but I understand that many people are too squeamish to kill any human, even such slime as has forfeited its right to be called human. Of course, Germans are understandably reluctant to use the term "sub-human", even when, as in this case, it is fully justified. But it does seem the least they could have done was sentence him to 15 years ON EACH COUNT. A 45,000-year sentence would have seemed a lot more reasonable to most people, even though he'd have been eligible for early release in only 22,500 years.

14:52 - Wired has an interesting article entitled Segway's Breakdown. They carefully don't say that Segway is doomed, but it sure sounds that way to me. The article quotes an estimate that the Segway factory was producing ten units a week in late 2002. If true, that's pretty pathetic for a company that received something like $90 million in startup funding. Kamen hoped to sell these things by the millions, but from what the article says no large volume sales have materialized, nor are any likely to. The downturn in the economy means that the companies Kamen hoped would buy large numbers of Segways are at best buying a few samples here and there. Kamen has been forced to retarget the Segway at consumers, who are unlikely to buy a $5,000 scooter. Even if the economy hadn't tanked, I think the Segway was stillborn. It was a stupid idea in the first place. With the economy in the toilet, it seems to me that Segway will never become more than a curiosity for those with more money than sense.

[Top]

Thursday, 20 February 2003

[Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week]
[Daynotes Journal Forums] [HardwareGuys.com Forums] [TechnoMayhem.com Forums]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: "Thompson's Basic Linux Desktop" is now available...
Date: Thu, 20 Feb 2003 00:00:44 +0000
From: Holden Aust
To: Robert Bruce Thompson

In January one of the online Linux columnists predicted that sometime this year one of the major U.S. PC manufacturers would offer Linux desktop PCs. You could infer that he thought this would probably happen sometime late in the year, perhaps in the Fall or near Christmas.

But look what I found on the HP/Compaq website:

"• Are you interested in Linux desktop solutions?"

When you follow that link, you get to this page:

and there's a "Buy Online" button at that page that takes you [here]where you discover you can buy a very nice Compaq Linux desktop which is practically based on Bob Thompson's Asus/Nvidia "Basic System" for $464. The $464 system is based on a Athlon XP 2000+ (upgradeable to a 2600+ for $90) with 256 Meg of DDR RAM and a 20G 7200 rpm HD (upgrade to a 40G for $40 or an 80G for $80), Ethernet NIC, etc.

The machine comes with Mandrake, but is certified to for Red Hat and SuSE, as well.

So, now, in addition to the Microtel PCs from Walmart and Sam's Club, you can get a "Compaq-badged" Thompson "Basic Linux System".

Another item, Bob, the student the Germans sentenced to 15 years, is named Mounir el Motassadeq, not Mohammed Atta. Atta is the guy who is thought to have masterminded the World Trade Center attack and flew one of the planes. Probably the reason that Mounir el Motassadeq was given a relatively light sentence is that he has been cooperating with the German police for the past year and has given them names and information that led to the arrest of other al-Qaida members and the distruption of a number of planned attacks, so the 15 year sentence is probably the result of a plea-bargain where he gets 15 years instead of a life sentence. Of course, he may spend the rest of his life in hiding from whatever remains of al-Quida or their sympathizers fifteen years from now, anyway.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Oops ??
Date: Thu, 20 Feb 2003 00:20:00 +0000
From: Holden Aust
To: Robert Bruce Thompson

Bob,

Now I'm not sure whether the guy who got 15 years in Germany is the same guy as the one who became an informant for the German police. I just read an article that made it sound like the guy I was thinking of was probably somebody else, so perhaps it wasn't a plea-bargained sentence, after all.

[Top]

Friday, 21 February 2003

[Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week]
[Daynotes Journal Forums] [HardwareGuys.com Forums] [TechnoMayhem.com Forums]

[Top]

Saturday, 22 February 2003

[Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week]
[Daynotes Journal Forums] [HardwareGuys.com Forums] [TechnoMayhem.com Forums]

[Top]

Sunday, 23 February 2003

[Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week]
[Daynotes Journal Forums] [HardwareGuys.com Forums] [TechnoMayhem.com Forums]

[Top]

Copyright © 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 by Robert Bruce Thompson. All Rights Reserved.