random thoughts of the month

November's bullet statements:

• Democrats take control of the House and Senate for the first time in 12 years (it was interesting being in DC on election night and walking past the White House the day after when final projections wrapped up the Senate for the Dems).
  
  
• We've had the most precipitation in one month in the recorded weather history of Seattle (rain, floods, wind storms, snow storms, quick freezes, and now more rain).
  
  
• What's the difference between sectarian violence and civil war? To me it seems to mean the same thing....countrymen killing countrymen (and woman, and children). I think too many base their idea of civil war on the American one, with armies against armies. "Modern" civil war appears to follow the same definition as terrorism....creating fear to advance a political agenda.
  
  
• Iraq exit strategy? Go long, go strong, or get out?
  
  
• Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld finally is booted. Why did Bush wait so long?!
  
  
• The election results seem to be pushing the Bush Administration towards finally figuring out how to get out of Iraq. The policy now appears to be one of saying that the Iraqis need to figure out how to take care of their own problems. Granted, they existed for a long time under a brutal dictator. But haven't we created the environment that now exists there?
  
  
• I've been reading Bob Woodward's book, State of Denial. Talk about screwups. It's hard not to wonder how things would be if Rumsfeld had been fired a long time ago.
  

It's almost December 1!

and we have to trust them?

After the last post, I turned off automatic update on the Windows XP lab computer. Now, everytime I log in, it nags me about a new update.

After ignoring it a few times, I checked to see what it was about. Why, it's an update of Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications!

Evidently, there's now two class action lawsuits over WGA, calling it spyware. Not to mention the fact that it would erroneously label some Windows XP installs as non-legitimate. What a pain. I suppose I will have to install the update though. At least then it phones home less often.

Microsoft makes us all beta testers

Microsoft's attempt to ensure that the copy of Windows XP you have installed is legit, has pissed off more than a few people. A couple of weeks ago, my organization mandated that all XP machines install Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications. If not, the threat was that Update would stop working. It's other purpose is to do the OS validation. Our overworked IT staff took MS's word for it and deemed it required. Luckily the majority of the computers my lab uses are Macs, but we do have a few Windows boxes running lab equipment. So I dutifully installed it.

Turns out, WGA is BETA SOFTWARE! When I found this out I was not happy. I pointed out the inherent problems with the installation with the IT manager, who was fairly meek about it (because of the threat "Critical Software Update - Apply NOW!" type of warning, I don't think they actually knew this). My biggest gripe, besides it being beta and spyware, AND IRREVERSIBLE, is that a buggy update could break the software/hardware combination controlled by that computer. And it's a royal pain to install and get working if the OS had to be reinstalled. Besides controlling an instrument that often has long run times, it also runs a Sassafras Keyserver for a networked software license.

So, yep it bit me in the ass today. MS Software Update ran over the weekend, automatically rebooted (which would have killed an experiment if one had been running on the instrument), and promptly froze at the BIOS prompt with an alert that the bootsector had been changed (and could be a virus!). When I cleared this, booting finished, and an alert popped up happily proclaiming software update had completed. Evidently the update did something at the BIOS level (who knows and I really don't care), which triggered the antivirus software. A complete scan of the hard drive showed no viruses.

But, if that had happened in the middle of somebody's experiment, it could have been expensive, maddening, and, well I can think of several stronger words.

Tomorrow I have to try to turn this off.

more of the same...

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is dead, blasted by a couple of 500 lb bombs from an F16 after his location was finally confirmed long enough for a strike.

There is no doubt that al-Zarqawi was one of the worst of the terrorist insurgents in Iraq. For that just remember Nicholas Berg. There is no doubt that if the US invasion of Iraq hadn't given al-Zarqawi his battlefield, he would have found another one with al Qaeda. But neither should anyone doubt getting this one guy will change anything in Iraq, at least not for a long time. I fear that our policies have created a new generation of terrorists, and we won't be 'winning' for a very long time. And the number of Americans that now believe this has become very high.

How long?

random thoughts

So many things running through my head.

The morass that is Iraq has more or less degenerated into a Civil War.

• Bombs, suicide bombers, Iraqis killing Iraqis, students pulled off of buses and executed.
  
• Over 2500 American deaths. Close to 10 times that in injuries, many of them severe, amputations, limbs lost, brain injuries, and lots of PTSD.
  
• I can no longer see how any exit strategy has a chance of working.
  

The state referendum to repeal a state law banning discrimination based on sexual orientation failed miserably (and thankfully) to gain enough signatures to qualify for the ballot. Thank God, and here's hoping that Tim Eyman just goes away. He truly is a horse's ass (which is actually denigrating to horses). We can only hope he now just goes away.

all blogs go stale....

Blogs...blogging...the blogosphere. Pod casting, audio and video. When I was writing more or less regularly (and it's been almost a year), blogs already were pervasive. Now, they are even more so, with many essentially becoming mainstream media. any news, no matter how trivial, is on the web within minutes of an event, with almost as many different opinions and analyses as there are blogs. Reminds me of a book, "Earth", by David Brin. One of the plot devices was what is now the internet and blogs, world wide instant opinion polls on almost any matter.

So, I might start this up again. Sometimes I feel like I have something to say, at least for myself. We'll see if anything comes out of it. Over on the other side, I'l probably start up the again on the more personal category. I intend to start keeping up a running journal on our preparations for our trip to Tanzania this summer.

The view

Headed down to San Diego today for a meeting. On the flight out of Seattle we flew west of the Cascades and just west of Mt. Rainier. This is the closest I've been to the mountain (and seen it) since a backpacking trip years ago. Our altitude was just a little higher than the ~14500 foot summit. Beautiful with the winter snow in the surrounding foothills. From there it doesn’t take more than a few minutes (I'm still on the same song on my iPod) to see Mt. Adams come into view. This is another of the chain of volcanoes that make up the Pacific “Ring of Fire”. Adams looks like a miniature Rainier although it’s summit is still over 12000 feet.

This is my second opportunity to use my new iPod Photo and Bose Acoustic Noise canceling headphones on an airline flight. These headphones really do what they claim. The noise from the engines is attenuated by at least 50-75%, allowing one to hear music (or a DVD, etc) without turning up the volume so loud it hurts. Of course, as expected the bass is lost a bit since it’s still in the same frequency range as the plane noise. Turning the EQ to bass booster on the iPod helps here. Plus just now the pilot throttled back the engines as we reach cruising altitude (37000 feet). I’m happy, I have the whold row to myself (that doesn’t happen often), but I better get back to the work I need to do.

Can't make up my mind

OK, contrary to what I wrote here back in December, I guess I will maintain separate blogs for different "essays" (I use that term loosely). If the subject is about computers, it'll go in Mostly Mac, if it's strictly science-related, it'll go in Science or Fiction, and if it's just about me, it'll go in the Attic. The Garage is left for those "weighty" discussions.

Geez, how pretentious can I get? Lucky I'm the only one seeing these!

Election day in Iraq

I'm sitting here Sunday morning, laid up with the leg injury suffered earlier in the week playing soccer, watching the news coverage of the Iraq election. By most news accounts (CNN example), more people went to the polls, at least in Baghdad, than expected. TV news ("Democracy in Action") showed many people risking their safety, almost defiantly, going to the polls. There have been more than a dozen attacks by insurgents with roadside and suicide bombs killing at least 25 and wounded over 70. While turnout may have been high in the regions of Iraq with a high percentage of Shiites, news accounts are also confirming that the turnout in the Sunni Triangle has been low. But the more the Iraqi people stand up to the Saddam loyalists, and the foreign and Al Qaeda terrorists, the less power they will have over the general population. I just hope the people can make it through the near term attacks.

So, once this interim government is in place, they will have a year to write a new constitution for Iraq, which will then be followed by another election to elect leaders based on the rules of that constitution. By then, if not sooner, the when and how US forces will be withdrawn will have to be answered. I don't want to be pessimistic on this day, but a Doonesbury comic from yesterday expresses the prevailing view that it could take 5-15 years! By then, I'm sure the cost of our involvement will be approaching the trillions of dollars and who knows how many more lives.

The (other) election

We're now a few hours away from the 'first free' national election in Iraq in over 50 years. Roadside bombings and attacks on Iraqi police, politicians, candidates, and poll workers are continuing, right up to the elections. Insurgents have threatened to kill Iraqis going to the polls. Similar attacks on US troops also continue. As of this morning, since hostilities started almost 2 years ago, our troops have suffered over 1400 deaths. Estimates of deaths of Iraqi soldiers and civilians, and of the various groups that make up the insurgency, are ranging closer to 200,000.

Will enough Iraqis go to the polls for the election to be considered legitimate in spite of the threats? If this happens will the various groups now fighting back realize that it's folly to continue and cease the relentless attacks? I truly hope so. We as a country have made a collosal mistake by the invasion and war. First it was in the name of protecting ourselves and other countries from WMD. Then it was because Saddam Hussein and Iraq harbored Al Qaeda (sure, they're there now but there has been no credible evidence that they were then). Now it's in the name of ending terrorism and bringing freedom and democracy to the world. The ~$200 billion spent to date is only a down payment. Our only exit strategy is to try to put all the pieces back together and give back some semblance of a country to the Iraqis. The election is a necessary part of this strategy.

However it all plays out, our country's involvement is and will remain for years a tremendous challenge, one I don't feel we can afford yet one we cannot now abandon.