Virtual Tome


  March 2000


Wednesday, March 29, 2000

A slow news day, here at least -- chores, reading up on computer security, getting paranoid... :-)

Prairie dog My neighbor phoned this afternoon, wondering if our power was on. It was. She had only 110 VAC coming in, not 220VAC, and her electric range and well pump were not working. The electrical utility people showed up late in the afternoon. The diagnosis: our little prairie dog friends had chewed through the insulation of the underground electrical lines, leaving the aluminum wire to oxidize and eventually short out. [Photograph from the Zoological Society of Manitoba -- click on the little bugger to see more pictures.]



Tuesday, March 28, 2000

How secure is your Windows computer while connected to the Internet? Check out Gibson Research's security analysis site. You will probably be in for quite a surprise.

From the Utterly Weird Dept.: Birth control for cockroaches.

SCOTUS rules on anonymous tips. "...an anonymous tip most often cannot be the basis of a reasonable belief of wrongdoing."


Monday, March 27, 2000

The FCC is sticking to their guns regarding the plan to license low-power FM radio stations to individuals, community organizations, etc. The broadcast industry is in a huff, claiming that this will create all sorts of interference for "regular" FM listeners. This was not on my list of future projects, but a buddy in Montana is really into this stuff.

The CyberPatrol hackers apparently have settled, and agree not to distribute the program that lets users see the supposedly proprietary list of sites that CP blocks.

Ran across a book review by Keith Dawson (from last month) of Database Nation. Sounds intriguing; anybody read this?

Interesting background on Russia's new prez, Vladimir Putin, who will be "a challenge for U.S. national security."


Sunday, March 26, 2000

Okay, this page is now living in its new, faster, more secure home (as of about 3:00 p.m. today). I guarantee it will load faster, and I can quit stewing about crackers (and I don't mean saltines!). Thanks for bearing with me (us, whatever) during all this.

ZDNet: The ACLU criticized Microsystems Software (makes of CyberPatrol - see below) and its parent company Mattel regarding the rash of electronic subpoenas recently issued. The original three defendants were subpoenaed, "along with two dozen others because they posted the programs, or linked to a site [emphasis added] which had done so, on the Internet." Hey, people, get a clue! Is it now going to be illegal to link to another web site? This is what the web is all about.

From March 24, another ZDnet story, Does the United States Own the Internet?. Yes, the Internet originated in the U.S., funded by the U.S. military (DARPA). But the article raises some interesting issues about international law, or the lack thereof, the meaninglessness of boundaries in an electronic virtual space, net taxation, and more. It is clear that we are still in uncharted waters.

I killed off the jasper.editthispage.com site this morning. It's an interesting concept, but something for another time. Having no local control over a site or its pages is a little unsettling. If I had a high-speed dedicated network connection, wanted to run Windows, and wanted to cough up $899, I could run Manila (the server software that powers editthispage.com) and administer everything myself. None of those three conditions apply, so... :-)

From this morning's Albuquerque Journal: Gang thrives despite police crackdown. Glad we are out in the boonies. Apparently this is a pretty sophisticated bunch. Another reason I vote for issuing concealed-carry permits (with proper training and licensing).

On a lighter note, here's a great story about the only saddle donkey race in the world -- in, where else, New Mexico! Jasper, you'd better look out! :-)


Saturday, March 25, 2000

This page may be on-again off-again today; I'm trying to decide what to do regarding the server, firewalls, etc. The weekends are usually a pretty slow news day anyway.

I removed the real-time weather link at the bottom of the page -- I'm tired of connecting to WeatherUnderground every time I edit the page. ;-) I also removed the "nuked" Internet Explorer GIF and link (hey, if you missed it, sorry -- it was sort of cool).

Bread is in the oven -- the whole house smells like a bakery; I love it.


Friday, March 24, 2000

Gene-mapping biotech company Celera feels misunderstood. [See March 16, below.] "Celera founder Craig Venter has promised Congress that he would share the [genome map] information. The company says it is more than 90 percent finished with its sequence of the human genome."

AP: Teens accused of credit data theft -- "Two 18-year-old boys were arrested in Britain on charges of breaking into e-commerce Internet sites in five countries, stealing information on more than 26,000 credit card accounts and posting some of it on the Web, the FBI said Friday." This sort of thing makes one think twice about ordering goods or services online using a credit card. The article goes on to point out that "Computer experts believe a two-year-old security hole in Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Information Server software let a hacker download thousands of credit-card numbers from e-commerce sites and post them on the Internet. A patch has been available for 18 months, but small companies have not had the resources to employ it."

The Albuquerque Police Dept.recently staged a bogus SWAT team call in order to plant a court-allowed bug in a suspect's home. Some homes (including that of the suspect) were evacuated while the police "negotiated" with a fake robbery suspect in a vehicle on the street (who was actually a police officer). The neighbors were not pleased. Other law enforcement agencies quoted in the story imply that this was, at best, a bit of an unusual tactic to plant the bug. "Jill L. Marron, chairwoman of the city's Police Oversight Commission, said it 'sounds like an extreme measure' and added, 'I can see where it would erode people's trust in the department.'"


An interesting set of stories today which are all sort of related. Internet filtering company Cyber Patrol is suing three webmasters for posting the list of sites that CP blocks. The suit claims copyright infringement. In fact, two non-U.S. programmers had "reverse engineered" the CP software and made the list of blocked sites available; this was further perpetuated by the webmasters in the lawsuit. The defendants reply that they did not "copy" anything -- they merely figured out how it works. But the EULA (end user license agreement) for Cyber Patrol's product forbids reverse engineering. Defendants counter that their actions are covered by allowances in the law for research. I see this possibly getting as sticky as the web-patent issue.

If this isn't weird enough, subpoenas have been issued via e-mail in this case. The article points out that e-mail can easily be forged; there is no way to know 100% that such a subpoena is indeed authentic. (Note that "real" subpoenas, sent via registered mail, will follow the electronic ones.)

Lastly, Lawrence J. Magid takes a look at net filtering software (including Cyber Patrol) and parental duties.


Thursday, March 23, 2000

Tim O'Reilly and Richard Stallman discuss the harm of patents (from Mar. 19). Richard Stallman is founder of the GNU Project and the Free Software Foundation. O'Reilly has published dozens of books on computers and programming. Stallman writes "If only the nontrivial new ideas are off limits for 20 years, that will be enough to keep us 20 years behind the times."

LinuxNewbies: More on installing software -- Linux is not quite "ready for prime time", at least in terms of ease of installing new programs. I've personally tried installing new programs from source code a couple of times; once I got real lucky, the other time I ate the big one. It's definitely a bit of a challenge.

Probably the closest thing to a Windows install of a Linux program are applications distributed as RPMs -- this from "RedHat Package Manager." This type of installation is more nearly bullet-proof, in that it will tell you what (if anything) you are missing in order to run the new program you've opted for.

None of the above is as annoying as running a virgin installation of Windows, launching Outlook Express, and getting an error window that the program can't launch because you are missing a certain file. ;-)


Wednesday, March 22, 2000

CNET: Tax credit for rural broadband proposed -- "A pair of U.S. senators will introduce a bill later this week aimed at giving tax credits for companies that bring high-speed Internet services to rural areas." The article points out that, if passed, this would provide an initial windfall to companies like US West, who already have a lot of digital data technology available and who already serve large rural areas. Maybe I'll see DSL (digital subscriber lines) here in my lifetime! Having a full-time 56k modem connection does not cut it, compared to the data speeds and lower cost of DSL. Go US West!

We never got the Wind from H_ll that was promised for last night (thankfully). Nor did we get the WfH that was promised for this morning. So much for the incredible nature of meteorological forecasting! However, the wind did pick up about an hour ago, with some rain following. We may get socked (or soaked) yet.


Tuesday, March 21, 2000

El Viejo reports that McCain made it "pretty clear" tonight on 60 Minutes II that he isn't much interested in the vice-presidency; apparently he feels he can accomplish more on his agenda (campaign finance reform) by staying in the senate. Fine with me! ;-)

Kind of a slow news day (or, rather, I've been swamped with other stuff and haven't been out looking that hard). This morning's wind advisory was canceled; however there is an advisory in effect for tonight, and it promises to be interesting. Otherwise, it's been light rain and/or snow, a lot of mud, and a not-too-happy horse and donkey.

Sen. McCain is, I guess, going to be on "60 Minutes II" tonight and talk about whether he will or won't endorse George Bush, with the obvious implications therein regarding the vice-presidential candidacy. I'm so excited I could just faint. ;-) Politics -- ugh!

Reuters: High court rules FDA lacks power over tobacco. "The nation's highest court upheld a ruling that the FDA, a federal government agency, overstepped its authority in 1996 when it issued sweeping regulations involving cigarettes and smokeless tobacco."


Monday, March 20, 2000

Reuters: U.S. gunmaker Glock to decide if it will join handgun settlement. Paul Jannuzzo, vice president and general counsel for Glock, said [in the quote of the week, in my book]: "I think it's unworkable, but you've got to weigh that against the cost of a potential boycott. If this was Paul Jannuzzo, this is a really easy decision. I'd tell them to go screw. But that's a check my mouth can write but my bank account can't cash."

For readers who may have missed the background on the Glock story, the Clinton administration essentially forced Smith & Wesson to agree to more/different types of locks on new handguns sold, as well to develop internal "owner-only" shooting capability within the next two years -- this in exchange for immunity from massive litigation (as the tobacco companies have experienced).

Drugging pre-schoolers ... "The White House planned to announce on Monday a push to reverse a sharp rise in U.S. preschool children using Ritalin, Prozac and other psychiatric drugs, the New York Times reported." [Reuters] -- The Administration lays credit for this campaign squarely at the feet of Mrs. Clinton. However, this has been a hot issue for at least three years; see Peppermint Prozac by Arianna Huffington (Aug. 1997).

Syracuse researchers work to preserve delicate sound recordings --
"For the last seven years, Syracuse University researchers have had a mystery that they didn't dare solve: a rare, 19th-century wax cylinder recording that can't be played without being damaged. But now, a new playback system being developed at the university's Belfer Audio Laboratory and Archive may reveal whether the cylinder contains what researchers believe it does: an 1895 recording of opera legend Adelina Patti." [Nando/AP]

The hidden privacy hazards of HTML Email --
"If you have enjoyed receiving HTML-formatted email messages, this news might come as something of a shock to you: hidden inside those fancy, fun-with-fonts and link-filled messages are some sly ways of keeping track of who you are and what you do with this information." [David Strom]


Sunday, March 19, 2000

New internet worm has the potential to shut down Windows platforms and effectively disable the operating system. "The Melting Worm is unleashed through Microsoft Corp.'s Outlook running on Windows 95, 98, 2000 or NT, according to CA [Computer Associates International]. Once launched, the worm puts a copy of itself into a Windows directory as MeltingScreen.exe and remains in memory. Files with .exe extensions in a system's Windows directory are renamed with .bin extensions.... The worm also starts to e-mail itself to all the names in a victim's Outlook address book and randomly executes other .exe files, Mangalam said. This potentially can take down a company's e-mail system." [CNN/IDG]

AP: Waco Standoff Re-Enacted. Having seen the documentary Waco: The Rules of Engagement, I'm curious what conclusions are reached after the re-enactment.

Rediff: Ten Things You Should Know Before Shaking Hands With Bill Clinton -- An interesting look at the prez from the Indian viewpoint.

"Thousands of incoming White House e-mail messages on campaign fund raising and other matters could not be searched in response to House subpoenas, and it would be a massive undertaking to reconstruct them, Clinton administration officials say." [AP] This sounds vaguely reminiscent of the "erased tapes" during Nixon's tenure.

2:00 p.m. -- The phone connection is back up with Albuquerque. Now, I need to go look out there and see what's been going on today. :-)

11:40 a.m. -- Still no phone connection to Albuquerque. Called US West back. Their status info shows that the problem "may" be fixed sometime "today." What happened to all the millions of dollars US West promised to pour back into telecommunications infrastructure in New Mexico? Hmmmm? [In fairness, I suspect the power outage did stuff that not even Pacific Bell could fix in the blink of an eye.]

After last night's widespread power outage, now I cannot get a telephone connection to my ISP in Albuquerque this morning (busy circuits). So, once again, the server is offline, and I'm sitting here getting frustrated. I called US West <stifled laughter> and they're "not aware of any problem." I miss Pacific Bell....


Saturday, March 18, 2000

There has been a near-state-wide power outage today between 5:00-6:00 p.m. MST. This means when the lights are off, so are we. Hopefully the lights will stay on.


... In loving memory of Virginia Tossell, Jan. 15, 1918 - Mar. 18, 1996 ...



Friday, March 17, 2000

Salon: Pink Pistols -- "One night in the autumn of 1987, in Little Rock, Ark., a boy named Austin Fulk smelled his own death...." The Letters page has a mix of reactions, perhaps the most interesting of which is from Oz (Australia).

New page: Living With Linux -- rambles and jots about an old geek trying to learn a new operating system.

Clinton administration readying measures for oil price relief. "Recent government data also indicate that oil -- while playing a much smaller role in the U.S. economy than during the Arab embargo of the 1970s -- could slow the nation's phenomenal economic growth." [Reuters] No kidding! Oil, not money, is what makes the world go 'round.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We're back! The server has been down most of the day; sorry about that. Clarence the Toad may have a stinging (croaking?) commentary in the works.


Thursday, March 16, 2000

Dan Gillmor has some interesting comments about the trials and tribulations of high-tech, including a fairly glowing account of installing Windows 2000.

I've temporarily (?) removed the old 'seer.net' web site link until I can remove an e-mail address that appears on all 100-odd pages. If you want to read any of VAT's stuff in the interim, it's still online at http://www.seer.net/vat/.

Bill Joy: Why the Future Doesn't Need Us -- the complete essay from the April issue of Wired. I guarantee this will keep you thinking.

Vermont is more liberal than California. I'm floored! :-)

I've managed to lose two days' worth of natter after doing an unexpected system restore.

From yesterday: Legal flap brewing in Indiana over new law permitting the Ten Commandments to be posted in schools or government offices. The ACLU is hot on the case, citing clear infringement on the Constitution's "perfect wall" separating church and state. Supporters of the new law blithely refer to "the teachings of the founding fathers," oblivious to the fact that many (if not most) of them were Deists or Universalists, not Christians.

The New York Times ran a pretty good article on Bill Joy (see below). I'll see if I can resurrect the link.

From Tuesday:   Clinton and Balir call for free access to human genome map. This, as I had noted, sent the NASDAQ down about 200 points. "Their call came a week after U.S. company Celera Genomics, racing to become the first firm to sequence all the genes in the body, said it was concerned that if it shared information with publicly funded research its data would be used by rivals." [Reuters]


Tuesday, March 14, 2000

S.F. Chronicle: Computers out of control? -- Bill Joy, Chief Scientist and cofounder of Sun Microsystems offers some dark thoughts on the potential future of unrestrained technology. Mr. Joy is reportedly one of the most level-headed individuals in the tech industry. His dark warnings are most ironic, given his own technological contributions. He likens his lengthy article, which will appear on tomorrow's Wired web site, to Einstein's letter to Franklin Roosevelt, which warned of the possibility of an atomic bomb.


Monday, March 13, 2000

NRA accuses Clinton of using violence for political gain [Reuters]. NRA executive VP Wayne LaPierre alleges that Clinton is not enforcing existing federal gun laws. The White House responds, saying the NRA has a "knee-jerk reaction" to any gun safety measures. Memories of the LIttleton massacre and the recent Michigan incident (in which a first-grader killed a classmate) are evoked. Well.... I don't particularly care for either party in this hostile exchange. What bothers me is that no one seems to be asking the real question: Why are these things happening? Why is a first-grader impelled to murder a class-mate? Why do two high-school kids go berserk and kill a bunch of people? This stuff is not happening in a vacuum, but no one wants to address the underlying problems; rather we get political rhetoric, either from the pro-gun or the anti-gun camps. :-(

In related news, the official report on the Columbine shootings concludes that the two young gunmen acted alone. The detailed report is slated to be released in CDROM form. I'm curious if one of the original nagging questions has ever been satisfactorily answered: How did these two kids "smuggle" dozens of barbeque-sized propane tanks (rigged as bombs), by themselves, onto the school campus without anyone noticing?


Sunday, March 12, 2000

Yet more photos, added to the second page. Just finished supper and got the horse and donkey settled for the evening. Skipper's in, and Lucy has obligingly wandered into her doghouse as the sun is setting. Couldn't ask for much more. :-) Tonight's $64,000 question is, Can I stay awake through the X-Files? I'm hankering for Spring (for real) and a bit more energy and warmer weather.

For the sake of readability and download time, I moved the photos to their own page (see Pictures).

Pope asks forgiveness for past sins of the Church [Reuters]. Virtually the same story ran in yesterday's Albuquerque Journal. I thought it was fascinating, especially having listened to the gripes, over the years, of former Catholics (is one ever a "former" Catholic?).


Saturday, March 11, 2000

I know this page is getting a little looooong in the download time, but I wanted to experiment with Gimp, which is a Unix/Linux graphics application on a par with Adobe's Photoshop. Note that Gimp is free; Adobe Photoshop costs many, many hundreds of dollars.

Talking Patents -- Doc Searls has an interesting piece in the continuing discussion on web patents. By the way, I think a lot of folks don't realize that the use of the Internet for commerce was forbidden until 1991. Also some interesting background on patents, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, et al.

I was thrilled yesterday to resurrect a ton of lost personal files and two years' worth of archived e-mail from two errant ZIP disks. This magic was performed by Norton Utilities (ver. 4.5 for Win 95/98). I had used the Macintosh version of this set of utilities several years ago but had not had occasion to need it in the last couple of years; nor had it occurred to me that this software might be able to save my stuff, until a friend sent me a reminder. Norton Utilities will do all kinds of slick magic to rescue a damaged Windows (or Mac) system. On the flip side, for those truly paranoid, it will really and truly delete sensitive files, rather than merely removing their name from the directory. It retails for about $49.95 at dealers like CompUSA, etc. I highly recommend it. (No, I do not work for Symantec, nor am I affiliated with them in any way, shape or form. ;-))


Friday, March 10, 2000

An open letter from Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com, regarding web patents.

From the Sick Irony Department: The CIA is planning to give a fired agent its top award. The agent was fired "in a 1995 scandal for failing to inform Congress about human rights abuses in Guatemala." [Reuters]


Thursday, March 09, 2000

The old seer.net web site has been unearthed from the archives, in its last incarnation (July 1999) before I took it down.

Having apparently lost two years of electronic correspondence with a long-time friend, he in turn tried to cheer me up by passing along the notorious Error Haiku, a collection of Zen-like Windows error messages. May you find serenity....

Reuters: McCain Ends Bid for the White House. Interestingly, he stopped short of endorsing Bush, at least at the moment. There were rumors that McCain would bolt and run on a third-party ticket, but his comments this morning do not hint at that.

Albuquerque Journal: Felony Suspects on Streets -- This has been getting a bit of press here lately. The New Mexico State Supreme Court apparently recently ruled that hundreds of older felony cases must be re-indicted. This has caused a nightmare of a backlog in the system, resulting in authorities being forced to turn loose current (non-violent) felony suspects. Great! :-( At least here, compared to California, we still have the means to defend ourselves, if need be.

Bradley is bye-bye, and McCain is to make a statement in about 15 minutes as to whether he's bailing. Here it is, early March, and it feels as though the game has been decided. Our primary is not till the first week in June. Why do I feel as though I'd be wasting my time to go to the polling place? Sigh...

Clarence the Toad is especially ticked off, since his fledgling presidential candidacy, which never even got any press, has been rendered moot. Riiiiiibbbit!

Clarence the toad

The U.S. Energy Dept. is repeating its warning regarding gas prices this summer. I was at the pump yesterday, and the lowest-grade unleaded was $1.439; mid-range was around $1.55. On the other side of the river, where I generally don't buy gas, prices are higher, as they are up in "town."

If they're talking an anticipated national average of $1.80/gal or higher, then California is going to be squealing, especially the Bay Area (where prices are already in the range of $1.80/gal). Yikes!


Wednesday, March 08, 2000

After yesterday's weather misery, it is absolutely gorgeous today. It's nice to clunk around in a tee-shirt and have a few windows open!


Tuesday, March 07, 2000

It's gotten quite cold and somewhat windy. El Viejo said he heard that the lows tonight would be in the 'teens. Sounds like it's time for a fire in the wood stove.

The rain and hail/snow have abated for the time being, but it's cold and windy. The rubber boots definitely came in handy when it was feeding time for the animals. The cursed letter to the tax man got mailed, including some photocopies of various documents. The sore spot around here the last several days or more has been a "phantom" tax ID number that shows up on all the paperwork regarding the sale of the California property.

The senior partner says he received a form from IRS after that property was paid off, with this ID number on it. Somehow, he became convinced that it was the appropriate number to fill in on all the escrow paperwork. The tax man wonders what the h*ll the number is, since it doesn't match up with any of our other tax ID numbers. Unfortunately, the senior partner cannot find the original document from IRS to try to clarify the purpose of this tax ID number. Oy! What bugs me is that I don't know how critical that piece of information is. We'll wind up relying on the professional tax-preparation people to straighten some of this out. It has just become a very tiresome subject at this point.

OK, I'll stop whining now! ;-)

Our network presence may be a little sporadic late a.m. here -- we're having some lightning and thunder; I also have to do a little trouble-shooting on the phone lines. Don't give up! :-)

Some miniature hail started about 11:15 this morning -- everything is white (and probably very muddy!). The mountains are invisible right now; visibility ends about half-way down our little street. Sort of a Currier & Ives scene, except it's early March. It will definitely be rubber boots when it's time to feed the horse and donkey mid-day.

I have to chuckle occasionally at the weather info from WeatherUnderground. Currently it states that it is snowing here -- hardly the case. The nearest weather station in this part of the woods is Albuquerque, a good 30 miles away. So, perhaps they are getting snowed on -- we certainly are not, at least not at the moment.

Reuters: Drivers May Pay $1.80 a Gallon for Summer Gasoline -- "Even if OPEC decides to boost output by a modest 1 million barrels per day beginning in April, U.S. retail gasoline prices will average more than $1.50 per gallon this summer after reaching a peak of $1.80, the EIA said." There is also some talk among private analysts of gasoline hitting $2.50/gallon in the U.S. later this year. Can you spell i-n-f-l-a-t-i-o-n?

VeriSign to Buy Network Solutions for $21 Billion. Woo-hoo! On Scripting News, Dave Winer explains briefly what both companies do:


Monday, March 06, 2000

Looks like we "lost" whatever was here for yesterday (Sunday). I can hear Bill Gates laughing up his sleeve -- "you gotta be running Windows!" Oh, well.

SuSE Linux just did not want to figure out that I have an HP Laserjet attached to this box -- at least without printing garbage. Since this b.s. has been going on for three days, I gave up and re-installed RedHat Linux.

Now I have to reconstruct the letter we were going to send the tax man in answer to his marvelous list of questions. And try to answer a recent letter. And go to the post office. And...


Saturday, March 04, 2000

Reuters: McCain Slips Further in Key States -- Sounds like Bush is really on a roll after New York and California.

Heard on NPR this morning: "Don't agonize; organize!" However, I wasn't awake yet, so I'm not sure who said it! :-)

Just glanced at the forecast for today: a blazing 69 degrees. Definitely T-shirt weather. I imagine we'll start seeing bugs before too long.


Friday, March 03, 2000

We were off the air between approximately 3:30-4:30 (MST) this afternoon while I tried to install a RAM upgrade on the server. As usual, CompUSA sold me the wrong memory module! :-( So I will be driving back up to Albuquerque Saturday morning to duke it out with them and try to get the appropriate item.

I did find a modest-priced ViewSonic 17" monitor and a second ZIP drive to use with the Packard Bell box, which I resurrected from the closet earlier today. I will need to use that box for the scanner and a couple of Windows-only programs.


Thursday, March 02, 2000

What a day! A letter arrived from the tax man with 9 million questions. The senior partner's memory is not so good, so I had to do some sleuthing and make a few phone calls to get some information. Not a barn-burner, but just time-consuming. I hate getting all this stuff dumped on my plate (literally) with the plaintive "you figure it out."

In rummaging through files in my office to try to answer one of the tax man's questions, I stumbled onto all the escrow paperwork from a year ago. It was not fun being reminded of all the angst we went through with the realtor and the first two dork buyers. I did have a nice visit with the manager at the escrow company (she's the only one who kept me sane through that ordeal), trying to answer a question about something.

It rained last night, about a total of five drops. Sigh... It looks like this summer is gonna be a bad one unless we get lucky with a couple of good storms.


Wednesday, March 01, 2000

An alert reader has written in to say that today's edition was erroneously dated Tuesday, March 1st, when, in fact, today is Wednesday. Thank you intrepid reader! :-) Actually this was not a "Leap Day 2000" problem; it was caused by playing with the server while not fully awake.

The same intrepid reader also inquired if there were back issues available. As I say to my old dad, "Whaddya think this is, the Ritz Carlton?!". We're working on it....

It still looks suckola outside, but still no rain. At least the errands got done.

From February 29 --

Leap Day did not bring the world to a halt, although there were scattered problems, especially in Japan.

Paul Barton-Davis, a former Amazon.com programmer, weighs in on Amazon's patent flap.

Check out noamazon.com for a view of why web patents suck.

Fat-Lady-Redux: Why didn't the world end? Check out Cory Hamasaki's DC Y2K Weather Report; it contains two good commentaries by big-gun mainframe programmers. One of the two had largely always felt that there was No Problem. The other was initially very worried but offers some insight into why things stayed glued together.

Albuquerque Public Schools wants to charge a fee to parents who home-school their kids. Sheesh!

It's looking downright threatening out there this morning -- dark and stormy. I hope I can get the doggone errands out of the way before it rains. On the other hand, Mother Nature has been a little cruel, teasing us with the prosepct of rain, only to say "ha-ha!".


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