Blackmoor Vituperative

I still haven’t put the photos from our vacation online. Probably this weekend.

Thinking about our photos, and our vacation in general, reminds me what a beautiful country we live in. Geographically, culturally, politically, economically… the USA really is a great place to live. That’s not to say that it’s perfect: there are certain laws and actions of our government officials that I think could use a great deal of improvement, but part of the beauty of the USA is that we can hope to peacefully change the things that need to be changed. And if we don’t, well, we get the government we deserve. That’s ultimately what makes the USA a great country. We’re responsible: it says it right there in the Preamble, “We the people”.

I often veer into extreme hyperbole in my online diatribes, just to vent some steam from time to time about things that bug me. But seriously, I think these are minor issues. They only loom large in that they are such deviations from what the USA should embody: freedom to speak our minds, to pursue our happiness, and so forth. And it’s such a huge contrast because, in general, we do have that extraordinary freedom, and a darn good standard of living. It’s good that we call our officials on the carpet when they step over the line, but we should also realize just how lucky we are to live here despite the unusual things that remind us that our country isn’t perfect.

It really is a great country.

Microsoft’s most recent security update for Internet Explorer introduces a serious security flaw on some Windows systems.

See Tech News on ZDNet, IE patch carries security bug.

Many novice Web developers use CSS positioning and layout directives without a sound understanding of how they really work. A brief introduction to the box model explains what it is and how you can use it to make better decisions about positioning your HTML elements on a Web page.

(from Tech Republic, Make better Web pages by understanding the CSS box model)

Turner Broadcasting is scouring more than 1,500 classic Hanna-Barbera cartoons, including old favorites Tom and Jerry, The Flintstones and Scooby-Doo, to edit out scenes that glamorize smoking.

(from Yahoo! News, Smoking cuts for classic cartoons)

Sometimes other people just make me ill.

A group of visually impaired campaigners have brought a temporary halt to plans by the US state of Massachusetts to move to open source document format (ODF), because the software to read them does not work with screen magnifiers.

Gutierrez found himself in a bind in February when he assumed the CIO’s position in Massachusetts. The state’s ODF policy called for executive-branch agencies by 1 January 2007, to use office applications that work with ODF and to configure those applications to save documents in ODF by default.

But the only office applications that could do that – such as the open source OpenOffice and Sun Microsystems’ StarOffice – are not supported by the major screen readers and magnifiers that people with disabilities use. It sparked an outcry.

(from Techworld.com, Visually impaired prevent Massachusetts move to open source)

This is a load of crap. A tiny fraction of Massachusetts citizens are forcing an entire state full of people to be subjected to (and pay for) proprietary, closed-source software, costing the state and the citizens of that state extraordinary amounts of money, not to mention the damage they are causing to the state’s long-term goal of making all state documents accessible to everyone. Would I rather that third-party accessibility software support ODF? Of course I would. But the people of Massachusetts should not be shackled to expensive proprietary software just because a small group of citizens wants to use a proprietary plug-in for that software. That’s ridiculous.

Peter Korn goes into detail about the issues at stake here. I suggest you go read it. It’s detailed, and I’m not going to quote it all here.

The Open Technology Development road map, a recently authored government report, advises Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Sue Payton to integrate a comprehensive open source strategy into defense department procurement and development policies. Written by consultants for Advanced Systems & Concepts in collaboration with major technology companies and the Open Source Software Institute, the 79-page report advocates adoption of open technologies, support for and adherence to open standards, and discusses topics like licensing and software project governance.

The report strongly cautions against proprietary vendor lock-in and discusses at length how open standards can facilitate interoperability between open source and proprietary systems, explaining that the DoD “needs to evaluate the impact that locking into one set of proprietary standards or products may have to its ability to react and respond to adversaries and more importantly, to technological change that is accelerating regardless of military conflict.”

(from Ars Technica, Department of Defense study urges open source adoption)

Susan and I just got back from Sandusky, Ohio, home of the Cedar Point amusement park. Cedar Point is reputed to have the best collection of roller coasters in the USA, which is why we went. We did have a good time, but you know, I think Busch Gardens Europe (formerly known as Busch Gardens: The Old Country) is on par with it, and Busch Gardens is a nicer amusement park to spend the day in.

We also visited Harpers Ferry, WV, during what just happened to be the centennial celebration of the first meeting of the Niagra Movement on US soil. Pretty cool. We also got to see (from the outside) the only English Norman castle in the USA, Berkeley Castle. Too bad it isn’t open for tours anymore.

I noticed some strange things on our trip. Some of them were obvious, and easy to talk about. For example, in Pennsylvania you can’t buy wine at the grocery store. You can only buy it at state-run stores. When I asked a fellow in PA where I could find the wine in the grocery store, he made a disparaging comment on his “backward” state. Meanwhile, in West Virginia, you can buy liquor at the corner 7-11. I kind of wish I had, just so that I could say that I did.

It was also hard to miss the demographic differences, but those are more difficult to talk about. People react strangely when you notice their differences. For example, there seemed to be an unnatural number of lean, reasonably attractive women in Sandusky, Ohio. Literally half of the people on the shuttle bus going to Cedar Point on our first day were young women. I do not know why. It was also hard to miss that Ohio is a very “white” state. Here in central and south-eastern Virginia, I am used to there being a roughly 50/50 mix of light-skinned and dark-skinned people. I think of this as normal. It was very odd to see a few dark faces in an otherwise oatmeal-colored crowd. I have to wonder how it would feel to be the X in a crowd of Os. I would have liked to ask a few people how they felt being a literal as well as figurative minority, but as I said, people react strangely when you draw attention to such things, so I didn’t.

I took a bunch of photos during our trip, using our nifty new Nikon digital camera. I’ll put them online soon, probably tomorrow.

Apple is suing people who use the word “pod” in their product. Ridiculous, you say? Outrageous, you say? Absolute evidence that Apple is to Microsoft as Fascist Italy was to Stalinist Ruissia? Why… yes. Yes, it is.

But of course, it is also an opportunity for Apple’s customers to demonstrate their manifest gullibility:

But perhaps the most interesting subtext to this story is that Wilson doesn’t harbor enough ill-will against Apple to stop buying the company’s products. She has owned about 10 Macs over the years and is currently surrounded by four of them and says she’ll buy more. In some ways, that’s one of the most ironic things about this story. Not only is Apple bullying people for the use of the word “pod,” it’s bullying its own customers.

(from ZDNet, Another cease and desist letter from Apple regarding usage of “pod” turns up)

IBM PC celebrates 25th anniversary

The warrantless Internet and telephone surveillance program authorized by the Bush administration violates the U.S. Constitution and must cease immediately, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

The landmark decision makes U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit the first judge to strike down the National Security Agency’s once-secret program. The American Civil Liberties Union had filed suit against the government, claiming the program “ran roughshod” over the constitutional rights of millions of Americans and ran afoul of federal wiretapping law.

(from ZDNet, Federal judge orders halt to NSA spy program)

Well I’ll be damned.