Month: August 2004

so bugs are important, after all

CNN.com – Microsoft releases free Windows upgrade – Aug 6, 2004: “”If we weren’t viewing this as such a key priority, then we wouldn’t be giving it away as a free thing,” Gates said in an interview with The Associated Press.” FOCUS Magazine Interview with Bill Gates: Microsoft Code Has No Bugs : “It turns out Luddites don’t know how to use software properly, so you should look into that. — The reason we come up with new versions is not to fix bugs…. It’s the stupidest reason to buy a new version I ever heard. When we do a new version we put in lots of new things that people are asking for.

CNN.com – Microsoft releases free Windows upgrade – Aug 6, 2004:

“If we weren’t viewing this as such a key priority, then we wouldn’t be giving it away as a free thing,” Gates said in an interview with The Associated Press.


FOCUS Magazine Interview with Bill Gates: Microsoft Code Has No Bugs
:

Gates: It turns out Luddites don’t know how to use software properly, [he said, after suggesting the interviewer’s issues were pilot error] so you should look into that. — The reason we come up with new versions is not to fix bugs. It’s absolutely not. It’s the stupidest reason to buy a new version I ever heard. When we do a new version we put in lots of new things that people are asking for. And so, in no sense, is stability a reason to move to a new version. It’s never a reason.

They say the definition of a gaffe is a politician accidentally telling the truth

President Signs Defense Bill: Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.

Billmon spotted this howler:

President Signs Defense Bill:

Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.

Read the rest of his post for a similar tale about Nixon: is there too much Tricky Dick in the air today or is it just me?

when will it stop?

Swift Boat Veterans for Truth – Disinfopedia: “Nixon’s chief counsel, Charles Colson, didn’t just tap John E. O’Neill to attack Kerry, he also formed an entire group around him called Vietnam Veterans for a Just Peace: [2] “[Kerry] was an immediate celebrity…. Years later, Chuck Colson–who was Nixon’s political enforcer–told me, ‘He was a thorn in our flesh…. We found a vet named John O’Neill and formed a group called Vietnam Veterans for a Just Peace…. “‘Swift Boat Veterans for Truth’ be seen as merely a 21st century reinvention of Vietnam Veterans for a Just Peace.”

If it’s true that you are known by the enemies you make, Kerry seems to be pretty solid: when the president singles out an unknown Navy vet for his enemies list and creates a group to undermine his credibility, that’s credibility itself.

Swift Boat Veterans for Truth – Disinfopedia:

“Nixon’s chief counsel, Charles Colson, didn’t just tap John E. O’Neill to attack Kerry, he also formed an entire group around him called Vietnam Veterans for a Just Peace: [2]

“[Kerry] was an immediate celebrity. He was also an immediate target of the Nixon administration. Years later, Chuck Colson — who was Nixon’s political enforcer — told me, ‘He was a thorn in our flesh. He was very articulate, a credible leader of the opposition. He forced us to create a counterfoil. We found a vet named John O’Neill and formed a group called Vietnam Veterans for a Just Peace. We had O’Neill meet the President, and we did everything we could do to boost his group.”

‘Swift Boat Veterans for Truth’ be seen as merely a 21st century reinvention of Vietnam Veterans for a Just Peace.
Joe Klein, “The Long War of John Kerry,” The New Yorker, January 5, 2004 (Courtesy of Matt Gunn and Mike Stark)

I wonder if the folks who leave comments like this are unwitting dupes of a clumsy smear or if they know they’re lying.

When I lived in the south, it wasn’t hard to find folks for whom the Civil War had never really ended: some attribute this to the stock from which many southerners descended — ill-used Scots and Irish who had a lot of practice at nursing grudges and inculcating them into new generations. When I read about this kind of thing here in the 21st century — some ugly Nixonian hangover — I wonder if, for some, Watergate and Nixon’s Imperial Presidency will ever end. The fact these facts have been out for quite awhile but unremarked, that O’Neill’s ties to Nixon and Colson and his years toiling in the Republican vineyard have been documented but not factored into the attacks on Kerry’s service, is frustrating. Ignoring these attacks isn’t enough: it’s not as if these are casual comments by disinterested veterans. It’s a calculated astroturf campaign that should be exposed for what it is. These kinds of attacks on the truth, on the facts, need to be stopped.

getting our money’s worth

Harper’s Index for July 2004 (Harpers.org): “Annual spending on the Marshall Plan, per European it was meant to serve : $96.45 [George C. Marshall Foundation (Lexington, Va.) ] Amount the United States allocated this year for Iraq’s reconstruction, per Iraqi : $727.27 [U.S. Congressional Budget Office/U.S.

I don’t know if these numbers are adjusted to take inflation into account.

Harper’s Index for July 2004 (Harpers.org):

Annual spending on the Marshall Plan, per European it was meant to serve : $96.45 [George C. Marshall Foundation (Lexington, Va.) ]

Amount the United States allocated this year for Iraq’s reconstruction, per Iraqi : $727.27 [U.S. Congressional Budget Office/U.S. Census Bureau ]

Interesting to see how this plays out.

North Korea’s navy threatens US west coast?

Top News Article | Reuters.com: North Korea is deploying new land- and sea-based ballistic missiles that can carry nuclear warheads and may have sufficient range to hit the United States, according to the authoritative Jane’s Defense Weekly. In an article due to appear Wednesday, Jane’s said the two new systems appeared to be based on a decommissioned Soviet submarine-launched ballistic missile, the R-27. It said communist North Korea had acquired the know-how during the 1990s from Russian missile specialists and by buying 12 former Soviet submarines which had been sold for scrap metal but retained key elements of their missile launch systems. Jane’s, which did not specify its sources, said the sea-based missile was potentially the more threatening of the two new weapons systems.

I wondered why we needed to spend money on a submarine detection system, given that terrorists — supposedly the biggest threat — don’t have submarines.

Boeing Wins Contract for Tracker Planes (washingtonpost.com):

The Navy chose Boeing Co. over Lockheed Martin Corp. yesterday for a $3.9 billion contract to provide the military service with aircraft to hunt submarines and track surface ships.

Well, it turns out, one of the Axis of Evil states does have subs and they can be made into launch platforms for nuclear missiles.

Where in Washington, D.C. is Sun Myung Moon?: Rev. Moon’s submarines, sold to Kim Jong-Il, empower a nuke threat to the West Coast:

The submarines were purchased from the Russian Pacific Fleet as scrap, though largely intact, by a trading company funded by Rev Moon of the Washington Times, recently crowned as Messiah in the presence of a group of US legislators. MeFi reminds that Moon is also the guy who writes the paychecks of Bill Gertz, Tony Blankley, Wes Pruden, Andrew Sullivan, Jonah Goldberg.

And North Korea has the missiles already, unlike other notable tyrants.

Top News Article | Reuters.com:

North Korea is deploying new land- and sea-based ballistic missiles that can carry nuclear warheads and may have sufficient range to hit the United States, according to the authoritative Jane’s Defense Weekly.

In an article due to appear Wednesday, Jane’s said the two new systems appeared to be based on a decommissioned Soviet submarine-launched ballistic missile, the R-27.

It said communist North Korea had acquired the know-how during the 1990s from Russian missile specialists and by buying 12 former Soviet submarines which had been sold for scrap metal but retained key elements of their missile launch systems.

Jane’s, which did not specify its sources, said the sea-based missile was potentially the more threatening of the two new weapons systems.

The MeFites seems skeptical of how seaworthy those old subs are, but they need only as reliable as the CSS Hunley to do the job.

freecycling update

I heard of this phenomenon twice, almost simultaneously — once through Kevin Kelly’s Cool Tools newsletter and within 24 hours from a mother I was chatting with while our kids were in swimming lessons.

So I have spent some more time on the freecycling exercise.

It works amazingly well. I have unloaded an old point and shoot camera (noted earlier), two printers, an old laptop battery charger, and a pair of underbed storage drawers. I have acquired a working cordless trimmer (charger still being sought by the donor) and a Yamaha digital piano/MIDI controller (yet to pick up, but my name is on it). This kind of invisible commerce may be the despair of economists but it works.

If you haven’t tried it and want to either divest yourself of some useful but no longer needed stuff, give it a try. Likewise, if you need stuff that may be hard to find in stores or that you suspect might be available for the asking, it doesn’t hurt to try.

Notable items I have seen freecycled:
* a bread machine (new with recipe books)
* electric piano
* many futons and mattresses
* lots of storage-related stuff (shelves, containers, filing cabinets)

My next project may to pull together enough old kids bike parts (or whole bikes) to let my school’s health and fitness teacher run a bike safety class and bike rodeo without using a lot of district (ie, taxpayer) funds.

Merchandising

I have two CafePress shops, with some fun stuff available. It’s a wonderful world will be where I put my nature and other assorted stuff: I have a couple of items there, but CafePress will only let you sell one item with a given image in their free storefront. If any of this stuff moves, I’ll upgrade to the Premium shop and diversify.

I have two CafePress shops, with some fun stuff available.

It’s a wonderful world will be where I put my nature and other assorted stuff: I have a couple of items there, but CafePress will only let you sell one item with a given image in their free storefront. If any of this stuff moves, I’ll upgrade to the Premium shop and diversify.

This is my initial foray into this stuff. Seditious commentary you can wear . . .

I’ll see what else I can find that might be appealing. If you like the image but want it on a different item, let me know.

Ronald Reagan (the younger) on why GW Bush is not the heir to Ronald Reagan (the elder)

If you are dead center on the earning scale in real-world twenty-first-century America, you make a bit less than $32,000 a year, and $32,000 is not a sum that Mr. Bush has ever associated with getting by in his world. Bush, who has always managed to fail upwards in his various careers, has never had a job the way you have a job—where not showing up one morning gets you fired, costing you your health benefits. He may find it difficult to relate personally to any of the nearly two million citizens who’ve lost their jobs under his administration, the first administration since Herbert Hoover’s to post a net loss of jobs. Mr. Bush has never had to worry that he couldn’t afford the best available health care for his children. For him, forty-three million people without health insurance may be no more than a politically inconvenient abstraction.

A scorching screed from local resident Ronald Reagan on the incumbent. I don’t think he missed anything.

And chances are your America and George W. Bush’s America are not the same place. If you are dead center on the earning scale in real-world twenty-first-century America, you make a bit less than $32,000 a year, and $32,000 is not a sum that Mr. Bush has ever associated with getting by in his world. Bush, who has always managed to fail upwards in his various careers, has never had a job the way you have a job—where not showing up one morning gets you fired, costing you your health benefits. He may find it difficult to relate personally to any of the nearly two million citizens who’ve lost their jobs under his administration, the first administration since Herbert Hoover’s to post a net loss of jobs. Mr. Bush has never had to worry that he couldn’t afford the best available health care for his children. For him, forty-three million people without health insurance may be no more than a politically inconvenient abstraction. When Mr. Bush talks about the economy, he is not talking about your economy. His economy is filled with pals called Kenny-boy who fly around in their own airplanes. In Bush’s economy, his world, friends relocate offshore to avoid paying taxes. Taxes are for chumps like you. You are not a friend. You’re the help. When the party Mr. Bush is hosting in his world ends, you’ll be left picking shrimp toast out of the carpet.