Bye, bye, Rumsfield.

So long, Rumsfield, and thanks for all the fish. I hope Mr. Rumsfield is happy with achieving his short-term wish of becoming a sacrificial goat (given how often he's tried to quit, it's a fair bet that he is not too upset). Please, please don't resume your career of being a neocon shill for Defense Studies departments.

Mood: cheerful
Music: None

Checks and balances start to assert themselves....

Yesterday's election is over, and only a few votes remain to be counted. I was sadly delinquent in posting my private predictions, but I almost called it this time. The Democrats have won the House of Representatives - by a slightly larger margin than I expected. The Senate is currently 49-49, with counting ongoing in two states (and a possible recount in Virginia). My prediction was for a 50-50 split; it currently looks like the Democrats will manage to reach 51 and control both houses of the Legislative branch.

Exit polls say that this is a referendum on Iraq. It's good that checks and balances are finally asserting themselves with regard to this unpopular, poorly thought-out war. However, that is potentially poor news for the Democrats and their next Presidential campaign. Now, it would seem, they actually need to have a policy (beyond "hey guys, we're not Bush!"). Bad news for their spinmeisters, possibly, but good news for Americans; the next Presidential election should be wide open with no incumbent, so maybe for once policies can play a role? Maybe I simply haven't woken up yet.

Mood: happy
Music: 69 Eyes - Feel Berlin

Vista RC1

My copy of XP Pro recently started behaving very badly (regular blue-screen), after some development tools went awry. This meant that I needed to reinstall everything (fortunately, everything was backed up) � so I figured I�d give Vista Release Candidate 1 a try. Doubtless, my clients will use it, so I have to know about it in advance. After my experiences with Betas 1 and 2, I feared the worst�

Installation was painless. The 64-bit version downloaded reasonably fast, burned easily to a DVD, and the installer was very easy � on par with Ubuntu. It found all of my hardware except my printer/scanner/copier, a re-branded Lexmark. The installer looked great, and didn�t seem to take very long. I was very pleasantly surprised that support for my nice nVidia card worked out of the box, as did sound (both problems with prior betas).

Logging in, joining my domain, and playing around was not only painless � it was slick. Very fast, smooth, and the eye-candy has been made painless but nice. Office, Visual Studio, Internet Information Services, World of Warcraft, Oblivion, VersaCheck, Money 2006 � all installed and worked perfectly. I had to enable compatibility mode (and run the process as an Administrator) for Microsoft Small Business Accounting � but it works fine once I did that.

Performance is very good, about equal to XP Pro (64-bit). Network performance is notably faster under heavy load � equal to Linux and FreeBSD on this system. Memory management has definitely improved; I filled up all my 2gb of RAM and swapping was less obvious. Sleep finally works.

Best of all, TPM (Trusted Computing � aka Treacherous Computing) doesn�t work on my motherboard� and I appear to have not lost anything for it! That was my main �I won�t buy Longhorn/Vista� argument, and now it�s gone. The system seems pretty secure, and while being prompted for administrative rights whenever I do something requiring them is odious, I think it will help in the long-term.

In other words: I take back all of my previous gripes. It�s really nice!

Mood: cheerful
Music: None

Whew!

I've made it 31 times round the sun. Quite a fun ride, so far. :-)

Mood: accomplished
Music: None

Scary conversation on the bus....

I overheard a wierd conversation on the bus. Two older fellows, one complaining about moving back to Columbia.
"It's not such a bad place"
"Only place that'll take me! I have a felony, and I'm proud of it!"
"Proud of it?"
"Yeah, I did 10 years for murder, but those girly-man liberal judges didn't understand - he needed killin'!"

Meanwhile, Mediacom are claiming to have lost the tech who was supposed to be here at 1pm to fix my cable!

Mood: tired
Music: None

Moved...

I'm now moved into my new appartment (email me if you'd like my new address). Overall, I like it. The neighbourhood is very quiet, the neighbours are super-nice, and it's quite comfortable. It's not the apartment I originally viewed, but it's more-or-less identical and once some issues are worked out, I should be very comfortable.

The move itself went both very poorly and rather well; nothing important has broken, and everything is packed up pretty well. Unfortunately, my appartment wasn't ready when I moved on Monday (despite promises over a month ago that I could move a few days early!), so I ended up moving into a storage apartment (and camping out at Mel's), and then moving again on Wednesday. I had help on Monday from a moving company, but was largely on my own on Wednesday (Rick helped a bit, and Mel helped towards the end when she finished work). I'm a tad sore, but amazingly enough - I did it! Moved 90% or so of my stuff myself. I also received a rent reduction and a big apology, which works.

Now for the big downside. The folks in the neighbouring apartment moved out just before I moved in, and left a horrid bug problem. It was bug-bombed yesterday... and now I have roaches. I haven't even lived here long enough to make a mess, so I know it isn't my fault - but the buggers are coming through the walls from next-door. Tomorrow I'll purchase bug-war supplies, and try to make the landlord pay for them.... worst case, my law degree is armed and ready. Fear my legalistic might!

Mood: aggravated
Music: The 69 Eyes - Lost Boys

Productivity....

I somehow managed to do all the dishes, bleach the kitchen floor, and only in 3 hours! Unfortunately, I still have the living room, office, bathroom, and bedroom to go....

Mood: accomplished
Music: None so far

England vs Trinidad and Tobago

I just spent a couple of hours watching England vs. Trinidad & Tobago. The result was no surprise: England 2, Trinidad 0. However, I don't think England really deserved such a big margin. Trinidad very nearly came out ahead in the first half, England only being saved by Terry's amazing defending. England had problems, too. For the first hour, their build-up was ponderously slow, and crossing was terrible! Gerrard gave the ball away a lot, Crouch kept trying fancy shots when simple kicks might have gone in, and Lampard was solid... until he tried to shoot. Michael Owen did a decent job, but didn't look fit. Rooney came on and the pace picked up; Rooney wasn't playing amazingly well, but I think simply having someone up front who wanted to launch all-out attacks made the difference. He also held the ball up well for others, and layed off well for Lampard to miss a lot.

That said, there are some positives. The England defence were very good, Terry especially. England's midfield fed the ball around well, and once they sped up were top class. Beckham's passing was brilliant; when he had a moment to aim, he was spot on. Rooney made a big difference. Crouch and Gerrard's goals may give them some confidence for later matches. I hope so - they need something!

Mood: happy
Music: None

Still alive....

I'm still alive! I've been really bad at remembering to blog lately, but that's mostly because I've been somewhere-beyond-excessively busy. One of our clients decided they wanted their whole website revamped in three weeks (for good pay plus a timely completion bonus), so I've been working stupidly long hours on that. So far, so good - it's AJAX/.NET 2, fast, and largely works. I should be done on time (touch wood). I've also been writing case reports for attorneys/private investigators, which is good money but quite time consuming. I've signed a lease on a new appartment, and will be moving at the end of July. Unfortunately, just as all this money comes in and my credit starts to repair itself... the student loan company in England decide I owe them money. So, it's more poverty for me* while I make monthly payments on that. :-|

Other than busy busy, I've been spending some time with Mel - only an evening or two a week, but that's a lot better than nothing. She took me to see Nickel Creek last night, and while Bluegrass isn't entirely my thing I still had some fun. It was great to listen to a Bach Sonata played solo on an electric mandolin.

* - Livable poverty, at least. I negotiated the payment plan pretty carefully. If a deal I'm working on comes through it's more like the Life of Reilly. :-)

Mood: tired
Music: None right now

Election fraud

I've been banging on the 2004 Election Fraud drum for a while, and really wish that there was a snowball's chance in hell of anyone who matters listening. The latest round of concerns - predicted by just about every security-minded techie out there - is reported by security maestro Bruce Schneir. In his blog, Schneir talks about the latest security problem found in the Diebold machines used in many precincts, including much of Ohio. Basically with a piece of commodity hardware (probably a PCMCI card and a USB pen-drive) and a few seconds to press a switch on the voting machine, you can reprogram a Diebold voting machine. Given that it's already been revealed that you can alter results using a specially prepared results storage card, Diebold engineers performed maintenance on some machines prior to election day (after machines were certified/sealed, and they were not re-certified), we have a serious problem: voters can alter the machines, election workers can alter the results, and engineers could change software after a machine has been "sealed".

Proving conclusively that fraud occurred in the 2004 Presidential election is very difficult, made more difficult by partisan tribalism. Bush's ardent supporters don't want to look too closely, while the anti-Bush forces are inherently biased (I hesitate to say ardent Kerry supporters, since he was very much the "not-Bush" candidate). Despite this, evidence keeps appearing that indicates that fraud was even more widespread than 2000 - but was swept under the carpet rather than being investigated thoroughly. For example, let's look at this article. I'll be the first to admit that whatreallyhappened.com is not an unbiased source, nor is it an overly well respected one. The sources cited in this particular article, however, are relatively strong. Cuyahoga's census data, and reports of problems by precincts to voteprotect.org are independently verifiable - and the correlation between African-American dominated precincts and electoral problems is very clear. CNN's exit poll (in line with other exit polls) states that 84% of African Americans in Ohio (9% of the population) voted for Kerry. The BBC News investigation into Republican Party electoral blacklists (people whose votes they hope to render inoperative) showed that all targeted precincts in Ohio were primarily African-American, and problems in the predominantly ethnic minority regions were numerous, including lack of sufficient voting machines (there were fewer than there were in 2000, despite a 17% increase in voter registrations), and reports of machine errors - leading to a statistically significant increase in spoiled ballots. The same pattern (with equally verifiable sources) occurred in Franklin county. In Cincinatti, voting machines made by Triad were used. In sworn testimony, Triad have confirmed that they had remote access to these machines - introducing the possibility for unaccountable alterations on election day. Secretary of State Blackwell's statements, and actions in "locking down" polling stations on December 10th - stating that voting results would not be public record (contrary to Ohio law) are also verifiable.

In short, regardless of who actually won in 2004, the election fell short of minimum standards for a free and fair election. When the US reacts to allegations of a deeply-flawed voting process in other country's elections, it demands a re-run. Why the hypocrisy?


Mood: tired
Music: The 69 Eyes - Devils

I'm less frightening than an angry house cat

I was walking back from the gas station a few minutes ago, having realised that I needed toilet paper. As is usual for nighttime jaunts around here, I saw a few members of the local wildlife contingent. Notably, I ran into a possum! They are really cute creatures, and normally run away when they spot humans.

Not this possum. This possum was evil. It was a little albino, giving its eyes a reddish tint. It was drooling, had its fangs out, and slowly waddled towards me. I truly didn't think a possum could be sinister, but I think this one was hoping to reincarnate as a hell-hound.

My usual "talk calmy while retreating" approach to animals didn't work. DevilPossum continued his inexorable advance, and I was beginning to wonder what I had handy to beat a probably rabid (any other reason a possum would pretend to be an attack dog?) critter when my savior arrived. The neighbourhood cute little black cat meowed and ran over to me! Upon seeing the situation, she bared her fangs, hissed, gave the most terrifying "mrrrooooowww" noise... and the possum ran for it. Cute cat then purred, rubbed up against me, and vanished into the night.

So, I'm happy to say I didn't have to fight a possum. I'm not sure if I should be proud of the fact that a tiny house-cat scared away my assailant more effectively than a 5'10" Englishman, though. I'm also very relieved that the cat was smart enough not to get close enough to risk catching rabies.

Cats rock.

Mood: thoughtful
Music: Steve Morse - Guitar Solo

Yick

Woken at 4am by automated "server needs assistance" alarms (thanks Nagios - worked perfectly), disk space problems. Fixed it. Went to sleep. Accidentally missed most of work day (2pm wake up!). Fever, sore throat... yup, I've got the bug everyone seems to be complaining about.

Wanted: One immune system, immaculate condition, one previously very healthy owner.

Mood: tired
Music: None

New company: Bracket Productions!

I thought I should share the good news that Bracket Productions is now officially a business. The license is on the way, and the State of Missouri has approved the name. I hope to get a domain/website setup pretty soon (I need a logo!), but in the meantime work will be much the same as before with a different name.

So much paperwork!
Mood: accomplished
Music: None

Sigh

I really hate it when a coworker arranges everything for a server purchase, installs it, and then realizes "hey, do clients need client licenses?"

5 licenses, 30 PCs. Way to go.
Mood: amused
Music: None

Avian Bert Flu

I'm sick, and have been since Saturday. Fever, aches, nausea, a little dizziness and the occasional gastric symptom. It's wierd, though. Every time I don't eat for a while, my fever comes down and I start to feel better. Shortly after eating, the fever powers back up! I could just not eat, but that seems like a poor idea. It's as if I'm a furnace, and every time I run low on fuel the flames die a bit... but fueling up fires things back to the boil.

Ugh.

All of zero1tek is now out with it!
Mood: sick
Music: None