Great truths can be simply stated

The Lord's Prayer contains 56 words.
The Ten Commandments required 297 words.
Abraham Lincoln's Gettysberg address is about the same length.
The American Declaration of Independence takes all of 1,300 words.

The EU's directive on duck eggs contains 26,911 words!

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(looking for the exact quote fr the following)
In the UK everything which is not specifically forbidden, is allowed.
In Germany everything is forbidden, unless something is specifically allowed.
In France everything is allowed, even if it is forbidden.
In Italy everything is allowed, especially when it is forbidden.

Blog This!

Neat new feature from Blogger.

Photos

I've just added a bunch of links to photos on the photo collection list at the bottom of the left hand column. Next I have to get out the CD wiht all the photos of old Fed UnCons, meets, and other such sorid events and post some of those.

Andrew and I just had a really lovely afternoon. I was doing laundry when he phoned and suggested we go see Shrek 2. So he met me at the laundromat and we had a nice walk home to my place. There we went online and I showed him the SwapGmail website and he had a ball looking at all the funny and kooky offers from people desperate to get a gMail account. We also checked eBay where gMail account invitatons are selling in the $60 range!

Then we strolled to the subway, a few stops later we were at Broadway & 86 in time to make the 4:30pm showing of Shrek 2. The film was great. Funny and charming as ever. Afterward we wandered down Broadway to Zabars for a small but choice bit of shopping for treats and then back up Broadway to a spacious deli for monstrous corned beef sandwiches and Dr Browns soda. It was just so nice, weather perfect, company the best.

Where are they now....

I was just in Alan's new game, Fed2 when who should show up but Occy (Jason). He's using the name Looney at the moment till he gets access to his name Occy sorted out. Same old, same old Occy tho.

Also got an email in tonight's mail from Wingdman (Greg H) - he's returning to Fed.

Naiad (Angela)is going back to working full time at the bank on June 1. She's currently working part-time. She'll be back in fed2 soon.

As some of you know, my old buddy from GEnie Fed (and also Hundred Years War) Krell passed away last summer. Krell (Karen Hillyer) was a long time online and real life friend and I miss her a lot. There are some memorial pages to her at: http://www.geocities.com/jagerdude69/kaz/ and http://zilal.byond.com/gs3/culture/gemkali.html

Paladin (Jon) is back in Fed2 and on my Tech Test Team. He's still in Chicago, still working as a chemist.

West (Ni in Fed) and Jim (The infamous Devon of the milk cartons) are married and still in Florida. I haven't dragged them into fed2 yet ;)

Steph (Reade) moved out to San Francisco several years.

Greg (Tantris, Icedrake) is still in Northern VA, still doing marvelous things like running marathons.

Toby's (Nightdroid and other unnamed personnas) still in Toronto, still a sys admin/programmer, still brilliant, still riding his bike, still one of the nicest people I know.

Nick (Cryptosporidium, Pegasus, etc) and Asti (Selena) are married and living in Switzerland .

Gordon (what the hell was his name in Fed?) is in Florida and working as a game programmer for EA.

Bo (Arrogant, Prospero) is still holed up in his stately home in the rural hills outside Bristol, England. He gave up Fed for Yahoo voice-chat rooms and WebCam chat.

Dana (Satinsheets, Blaze) married Nick Z (Bart) and they currently live in Colorado.

Oxcart - last time I talked to him was years ago and he was in Texas. I lost touch with him but about 2 years ago Starr told me she'd been with him in real life for a bit and he was now in residentail care. If you know anything new about him, please let me know.

Scott (Tellurian) is now married and still living in NYC.

Nancy (EvilExWife, Gerhilda)and her husband Tro are still in Northern VA, he still works for AOL and they have a gorgeous 3 year old little boy named Demetrius.

Neil (Gonzo) is still in MD, still with Simutronics.

Fletcher is still in Toronto and everything is still his fault!

Kick Off The Summer With Great Fares From American Airlines?

Are they nuts? Is there someone at American Airlines sneaking in some of the very strange "deal" offerings and falling over laughing at the imagined responses?

An example...from this Great Fares offer announcement AA sent me just now:
New York LaGuardia,NY - (LGA) NW Arkansas Regional,AR (XNA) $262RT

Umm HELLO! Who in their right mind in NYC wants to go to ARKANSAS REGIONAL AIRPORT? And for that fare - which by the way is PLUS taxes and fees so we're talking shelling out about $350 to go to god-knows-where rural Arkansas? This is a deal?

Other cities are offered deals going to Los Angeles, San Jose, Miami, Honolulu. All at prices well under $250 - real deals.

New Yorkers get offered an expensive flight to RedNeckLand.

There's got to be someone at American Airlines with a very warped sense of humour!

Perjury charge against Martha witness!

Ho, ho, ho!
From CNN Breaking News:
A Secret Service employee involved in the government's case against the domestic diva Martha Stewart was charged with perjury Friday, according to federal prosecutors. Larry Stewart, who testified as an expert witness about the ink on a broker's worksheet, was charged with two counts of perjury in a complaint filed in Manhattan federal court.

Full story: http://money.cnn.com/2004/05/21/news/midcaps/martha/index.htm?cnn=yes

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I'm simply not convinced that Martha Stewart was guilty of anything more than being a clever woman in what is jealously considered a "man's world". I'm disgusted at the waste of taxpayer money to persue this woman. In a perfect world, where all other top business executives were pure and innocent of any dubious dealings, her actions might be called into question. But considering what's out there, her "crimes" on a scale of 1-100 rate down in the <10 range whilst others who we can all easily name who are notoriously in the >90 range go merrily whistling along unmolested by the so called forces of justice.

It's only 2pm and already my anti-virus program has caught 23 virus attachments in my email today. All Netsky. That's disgusting.

I'm going out to buy a TV today. I had a rather nice 27" (or something like that) TV, but it was stored in my Ex's basement in PA and his insane wife threw it out. Ah well, easy enough to buy a new one. I haven't really missed watching TV the past year or so. In fact, my feelings even now are sort of lukewarm. So lukewarm that I can't be bothered getting anything more than a minimal 13" cheap model.

Regarding my calling my Ex's new wife insane, the woman is genuinely mad. More than mad, she's malicious; not just to me but to him and to the kids. Adam and Andrew have her number and stay clear of her. I have no sympathy for the Ex, he's earned every bit of misery she's caused him. He got precisely what he wanted. He's actually gotten quite strange as he's aged becoming increasingly like his father. He usually means well or thinks he does, but it always comes out wrong.

MAC OS critical vulnerability

As you may know, I started out as a MAC user. A devoted MAC user at that. I don't count my Commodore years since it never really gripped my consciousness as a part of my everyday life. However, I once was one of those who ignored all the negatives like insane overpricing, lack of software, lack of games, lack of upgradeability, fragile file format causing constant file losses (broken fork issue), etc.

Then one day I got a virus on my MAC SE. Yes, back then there was none of that idiotic smug nonsense that Mac's were somehow invulnerable to malicious attacks. And where did I get this virus? Not on the Internet mind you, but from a document for my son's Lutheran Church School that I transferred to my computer by floppy disk to work on for them as a favor. What a nightmare that was! MACs are vulnerable, any computer is vulnerable, perhaps in different ways but believe me they are vulnerable.

Anyway, I switched and am now a Windows user, and that was the only time in all these years (almost 20!) that I have had one of my computers infected with anything. This is due to 95% vigilance and 5% luck. I did have 1 virus infection at an office computer at AboveNet, but that was during a short interval when they insisted on letting a true dork from Desktop Support at the White Plains HQ control my PC. His idea of security was to block all DL/installs on staff computers. What an arrogant, ignorant, sexist idiot he was. I resolved that issue fast. Got control of my PC back from the head of the dept with backup by my director, cleaned up my machine and never had a problem with it again.

Anyway, I put the blame for this crap on the real guilty parties. The criminals who create and send out the viruses, worms, trojans, malware, etc. Put them in jail.

So here's another critical flaw in the MAC OS that leaves users vulnerable to attack and takeover. They'll still keep singing the MACs are safe song, I know. Denial ain't just a river in Egypt.

http://www.jayallen.org/journey/2004/05/mac_os_x_highly_critical_security_flaw

http://mamamusings.net/archives/2004/05/18/serious_os_x_security_problem.php

Thanks go to Tavie for bringing this to my attention in her blog www.tavie.com. Tavie is one of the saner MAC users out there and I rate her highly for many reasons having nothing to do with MACs.

What's it worth to you?

Sometimes I wonder why all my logic and good sense seem to turn off when it comes to IBgames. Why do I spend so much time working for a company that pays me nothing? I invest vast amounts of my time, knowledge, skills, and money in a company that essentially gives me nothing in return. Well, they do give me lots of agro and abuse and insult. And that is wrong.
I've decided to take Alan's advice and apply it to IBgames. Recently in a discussion about why players should pay for Alan's game when there are loads of excellent free games out there, he said, if it has real value, people will pay for it. If they won't pay for it, you're only kidding yourself.
I think it's time to stop kidding myself and start asking, "What's it worth to you?" every time IBgames asks me to do something for them. I don't mean they have to payme a salary. But they have to offer me some sort of quid pro quo, some value in exchange for what they propose I give to them.

The time has come, the Walrus said...

The US is trying to use the old chocolate, nylons, and smokes routine that won over europeans in WWII, but it doesn’t work in Iraq.

A CIA report in March '03 said democracy is almost impossible in Iraq.

Well, we can just pattern it after one of the OTHER successful, democratic, freely elected, solvent, popular, progessive arab governments....
Oopsss.
How about after one of the successful, democratic, freely elected, solvent, popular, progessive black governments....
Oopsss.
How about a hispanic....
Oopsss.
How about an asian....
Oopsss.

Are you beginning to see a pattern here?

Of course not. Those countries ALL have repressive, corrupt, volatile, bankrupt governments because of western racism. And every democratic candidate will say so, repeatedly. As Hitler proved, people will believe anything if you repeat it frequently enough.

Plus que change, plus que le meme chose.

Arrgggh! I can't believe I forgot to buy a new cheap internationals calls phone card. Damn, I reminded myself about it last night and again this morning and I knew there was something I had to stop at the local corner shop and buy. But I forgot. I guess I'll have to try again tomorrow.

I first became interested in medieval China after reading a book about a Confucian Judge called Judge Dee. He is the subject of a series of mystery books based on the casebooks of a real life administrator and jurist from 8th century China. The original Chinese book Dee Goong An ( Casebook of Dee) is set in 15th century China, that era being much more familiar to the unknown anicent author than the actual era 7 centries earlier. I then began to read the series of modern books recounting further adventures of Judge Dee written in English by Robert Van Gulik. This lead to me discovering the complex and fascinating culture of classic China extending my reading into not only Chinese literature but history, science, and technology as well. I have a great fondness for books written by the classical Chinese female writers; Chinese women being free to write and publish enjoyed a golden era covering several centuries.

I went to an International Ethnic festival today. The city closed off 8th Avenue in Manhattan for over a mile and it was filled with interesting booths offering foods, crafts and books. There were bands along the way playing the music of the sponsoring ethnic group as well as 1940's big band tunes and jazz. I had to be in midtown Manhattan today anyway so I left the house early and got off the subway at Columbus Circle/59th Street. I walked over to 8th Ave and then strolled down the avenue enjoying the gloriously warm and sunny spring day. I think the nicest part of the festival was towards the very end of the route. There was a band playing very lively music; I'm no expert on these things but it seemed to be the sort of tunes popular in the 30s and 40s for dancing. Couples filled the street dancing, some with lively enthusiasm and some with an obvious sense of nostalgia. The rest of us stood around watching and admiring and enjoying.

I truly believe that people who write viruses, trojans and similar things must start getting serious jail time. Regardless of age. if they are over 16, treat them like an adult and put them in jail; if they are under 16, put them in a youth facility and punish them by removing access to computers entirely, not just the net.

I'm not interested in what they claim their intent was. I'm not interested in their claims that they had no idea how much damage and loss it would create. First of all, to put it bluntly, those are simply lies. They know. You know they know. Let's stop kidding ourselves.

If I sneak into the subway system as a "lark", on a dare, or because I'm a sociopath and turn off the safety warning lights and cause two trains to crash; I will still be heal CRIMINALLY liable for the damage I cause and any loss of life or damage to the people involved. How is it different if I do the same thing by releasing a virus that knocks out the subway's warning light control system? What difference does that make to the people killed and injured in any resulting accidents?

What difference is there? None. Except that the person who creates or launches a virus is actually capable of causing far more damage then the person who just walks in and turns off a warning switch. In recent virus/trojan attacks multiple systems around the world have been damaged, knocked out, and corrupted. The dollar cost is often in the multi-millions. The costs to individuals in lost time and damaged equipment are massive and they are never reimbursed by any victims fund.

And that's what we are folks, make no mistake, we are the VICTIMS of these Cyber-Sociopaths. And as long as we don't put them in jail, they will continue to amuse themselves at our expense.

Put them in jail.

I'm feeding my twisted sense of humour tonight with a mini-festival of Apple Switch Commericial Parodies. Listening to Simon & Garfunkle in the background. I need to get the new Hamsters CD. What I really need to do is get my arse over to London and go to one of their live concerts at the Half Moon in Putney. I have to synchonize my flight to London with their end of month concert.

You have to love the US Post Office. If not, we'd all go berzerk and find AK47s and destoy them all! If it's Saturday, you can tell that I'm probably getting up disgustingly early to treck down to the local post office to personally pick up the -priority mail- parcel that the bastard postman lied about trying to deliver on Friday. I kid you not, this is a continuing saga with almost everything I order online that gets delivered here. I really don't know what it is with the parcel delivery crews. The regular postman is ok, well ok if you don't mind having your mail delivered after 4pm every day. But the parcel crew have serious issues. I have already escalated the situation to the Postal Inspectors enforcement unit and my local congressman's office. I suspect the postman on my route thinks he can do as he pleases because this neighborhood has a high percentage of immigrants who he thinks are afraid to complain. Wrongo buster, this girl knows how to complain.

Returning from the post office, parcel in hand, I made some coffee and settled in for 40 minutes on the phone this morning chatting with Alan mostly about business. Late in the afternoon, almost 5pm my time, 10 PM Alan's time, we met again online in Fed2 (Alan's new sequel to his originail game Federation - see the link in the left column. In cyberspace we chatted about family, his parents, the copy of 1421 I sent his dad, Andrew's studying for finals, going to WorldCons and finally as it always does the talk turned to the usual topic of couples far apart. The man is wicked. And he's very good at it. I'll check flights and tickets in the morning and see how quickly I can get back to London.

One of the semi-personal topics we talked about was the women who try to have a go at Alan. We both make it quite clear to people that we're in a long term comitted relationship so one wonders at the obvious moves of these women. Most of them come under the heading of "star-f'kers". In the internet games world, the Game Designer is the star and the target of would be Elf Princesses, Lady Pirates, Cyberspace Red Sonias and wannabe Fantasy Dominatrixes. They are generally so strange or socially dysfunctional that normal standards of reality and behaviour simply never enter the picture. It's the non-internet over-the-line flirts that we really wonder about. Since when has it become acceptable to proposition someone in front of their partner?

I can't believe I forgot the login info for my Gmail acct. Ok, so I never used it after I created it but still, I usually cut-n-paste the info into an email and save it in my regular mail files. Not there tho. Nor in my notebook I keep track of important info in. Gmail's lost info system sucks. Sorry but there's no other word for it. Very flip actually. Arrgh!

I spoke with Alan yesterday and it turns out that the robo-voice was his voicemail. Apparently BT upgraded their software or something and managed to delete his custom voicemail message and replace it with the robo-voice. He was muttering about demanding BT pay him 25 quid to replace the custom recording they binned.

At the time I phoned he was out walking. We've both gotten seriously into exercise, walking being one of the easiest and cheapest ways to do that. I however, have my home phone set to forward calls to my cell phone if the landline is busy or unanswered. If the cell call doesn't get answered, then it drops to voicemail. Much more convenient, I think.

Aside from the usual day to day activities of life which I won't bore anyone with by sharing, I was doing some work for Fed2 yesterday. We're creating a new purpose built front end for Fed2 and I was researching and collecting images for various objects. Not an easy task as many were quite obscure or imaginary:
The boxed set of highly polished Venusian opals.
The holo is an advance copy of a forthcoming Martian Studios
blockbuster.
The small casket is sealed with the seal of the United Church of Earth

I did manage to collect the whole set (or what I thought would illustrate them anyway) and send it off to Alan.

I finally set up newsgroups again so I can read messages from old friends like West and Greg. The nice thing about the internet is that it makes it so easy to keep track of old friends and keep in touch. The bad thing about the internet is that it sometimes makes it so difficult, for many and varied reasons, to keep in touch. I'm somewhat uneasy at how much I rely on email to keep in touch rather than just pick up the phone.