Tennessee Badger

Better stimulus through math?

2009-10-30T09:21:00.001-04:00

Wow, it's been a long time since posting...whatever.

Ok, so I just heard that the $787B stimulus is now being proudly touted as saving 650,000 jobs.

WTF?

Let's break this down a little. We spent $787B and we only got 650,000 jobs? I will now demonstrate what an offensive and gross waste of money this was.

The Hard Data: Suppose that we just take the money and give it directly to the people. They wouldn't even have to work. So by that measure, 650,000 people would have gotten $1.2 MILLION dollars each.

"Hey," you say "that's not fair. Less than 1/2 the stimulus money has been spent." Alright, I understand your concern. Let's just cut the number in half (for easy number crunching). Now each worker only gets $600,000. Damn, I have no idea how I would ever be able to survive on such a paltry sum.

Alright. Now, let's do something a little more interesting. Suppose that instead of getting these people jobs, let's just give them a *reasonable* amount of money to carry them for a year. Let's just make that number $40,000. Under this plan, even with only half the stimulus spent, it would have supported nearly 19.7 MILLION people. I would like to point out that, according to the BLS, there are only 15.1 million people unemployed.

TADA!!!

I will now take a bow, go find the crackerjack box that has the Nobel Prize for Economics in it, and start working on a cure for cancer.

UTFCU Sucks

2008-12-12T16:47:00.002-05:00

Today, my credit union started a mobile site for the wonderful convenience of mobile banking. This, on its own, isn't a huge deal.... except that it's horribly flawed in terms of security. For those of you without a copy of the latest FFIEC best practices document (that's a government bureau that sets standards for banking industry stuff, including internet banking security), let me walk you through the normal UTFCU site and then we'll look at the mobile site.

On the normal site, (http://www.utfcu.org) users are asked to provide their username and enter a CAPTCHA. This is a good start. The site redirects you to the secure address (https://...), it knows who you are (the account number) and by using the CAPTCHA, it keeps out the majority of would-be criminals.

On the next screen, if your computer does not have a file (cookie) on it telling the website that you've been here before, the site prompts you with a security question. Another reasonable measure. Shared secrets (if they're actually secret) are a reasonable counter-measure against identity theft.

Finally, before you are allowed to access your account, you must provide your password and the site shows you user phrase. This is a graphic of a phrase that the user previously selected. The idea behind this is that the site is proving to the user that this is the real McCoy and not some phishing site. Once you enter the valid password, you're in

Now, let's compare this to the mobile site at http://mobile.utfcu.org.

First, it's important that you go to https://mobile.utfcu.org. Otherwise the site will give you a nasty-gram. This isn't a flaw, but it's certainly not user friendly.

Once you are there, the site is simple and straightforward for use in mobile browsers. It immediately asks for account # and password, and upon providing this, it lets you in.

WHAT??!!??

Let's review:

No CAPTCHA
No Security Question
No Site authenticity image

This utter lack of security is practically criminal, and if the NCUA and FFIEC have anything to say about it, it's probably a violation of some sort. Internet banking standards demand two factor authentication, even if it's a weak two factor authentication.

So, me, being a concerned member, replied back to the UTFCU twitter account that they used to announce the feature ('cause UTFCU's trying to get wit' the kidz on the new hotness...which they think is Twitter)....

I shouldn't have wasted my time. Here's the conversation:

UTFCU UTFCU now offers mobile banking. Visit our website for details and login instructions!

dfcoates @UTFCU Why is the mobile site lacking in 2 factor autentication and user watermarks, isn't 2 factor mandatory under PCI-DSS / other stds?

UTFCU @dfcoates Good question! Actually, it is multi-factor. It uses the device number from your mobile telephone.

dfcoates @UTFCU not from what I'm seeing...I can use my own PC to hit https://mobile...and it works...how is this not a major security lapse?

[Direct Message] UTFCU are you able to login to your account using that method?

[Direct Message] dfcoates yes...And I can use my ipod touch which also has no esn or phone number

[Direct Message] UTFCU just to verify - you're going to .org, right? Can u send a screenshot from desktop browser window for me to frwd to developer?

[Direct Message] dfcoates No problem, I can send a screen shot, but I'll need a real e-mail address from you (as opposed to twitter).

UTFCU @dfcoates we allow 3 devices to auto-enroll but I will be happy to lower the number of devices on your acct. if you want.

[Direct Message] UTFCU the device number is created by the system and stored in a cookie. We allow 3 auto-enrolls and a maximum of 5 total clients.

UTFCU I can disable mobile banking for your account if you want or send you the number for our VP of IT.

There are a multitude of things wrong here and if you, the reader, would like to opt out here, I don't blame you. I'll let the above facts speak for themselves. If, however, you would like to hear what I think is wrong, follow me!

It uses the device number from your mobile telephone? Yeah, and it uses this amazing facial recognition software using the pixels in your screen, sure, whatever. Just in case you're wondering, there is no such thing. Your phone doesn't send it's phone number or it's ESN when it connects to a website. The closest you can get to a device number is looking at the IP address and/or hostname where the request is coming from. This is very flawed because users on different get new IP addresses weekly, daily, even hourly. Multiple computers can show the same IP address, and finally, IP addresses can be "spoofed" (hacked). In fact, the website gets very little information about who you are. If you'd like to see what a website receives when you visit, try this page.

Secondly, the site doesn't have to be accessed via a cell phone like device. Feel free to go to https://mobile.utfcu.org right now using your regular browser. Now, it's true that the site could programmatically block users of non-mobile web browsers, but this is flawed for two reasons: 1-Browser ID's can be hacked/faked very easily. 2-Not all mobile browsers are run on phones, take my iPod Touch, for example. It runs the same Safari web browser that is used on the iPhone. Therefore, there is no way to tell the difference between an iPhone and an iPod Touch.
The device number is created by the system and stored in a cookie. We allow 3 auto-enrolls and a maximum of 5 total clients. This might actually work if it weren't for the fact that they have no idea which devices are mine and which are not. Unfortunately, they don't. The enrollment process on the site is to simply log into the mobile site. There is no process to validate the account or accountholder over the phone or over the existing fully featured site. Instead, the site checks to see if you have a cookie if you were previously there. If not, it checks to see if it's issued cookies to you at this IP address before. If it has, and you're below the limit of 3, you can log in. If it hasn't, and you haven't logged in from 5 other locations previously, you also get in.

If this doesn't sound secure, you're right. The site isn't preventing malicious users from hacking your account, they're only preventing users coming from more than 5 locations from hacking your account. This also means that if you wipe private data from your web browser on a regular basis, you're up a creek after the 3rd iteration. So much for keeping your own browser secure....

There's another fundamental flaw here... simply put, cookies are very insecure, and if you have the right tool, like the free Add N Edit Cookies Add On for FireFox, you can copy the cookies they give you to as many machines as you want...so much for the 5 location limit.
I can disable mobile banking for your account if you want or send you the number for our VP of IT. This is classic. This is the old "well, if you don't like it, you can shove off" trick. The thing is, I actually do want mobile banking, and I think a lot of people do. This, for me, was the tipping point and the reason I've been typing for over an hour. It says to me, "we're not going to fix it, so run along home." Unfortunately for them, they've upset an IT professional who has worked intimately with electronic payment processing and PCI secure systems for over 3 years and while banking is slightly different from payment processing, I know a major security flaw when I see one.
No CAPTCHA = lots of attacks - Now that I've demonstrated that the 3 and 5 limits do nothing, there's nothing except velocity limits to stop an enterprising would-be criminal... great.
No security question and no site authenticity = phishing phishing phishing.... Just for fun, I looked up domains and found out that utfuc.org and uftcu.org (typo spellings) are completely open to purchase. An enterprising soul could simply copy the HTML on the current mobile site and just let the account numbers and passwords come in.... not so good... and my apologies to UTFCU for probably forcing their hand to buy up those domains to protect their accounts....

IN SUMMARY

To put this in context, if my workplace did this same stunt, we'd be looking at six figure fines from Visa. I suspect the same may be true for credit unions. However, I'd rather they fix it than get fined...remember that credit unions are member owned, and inevitably, a negative event for them is really a negative event for me as a member. I guess my only true recourse is publishing what I know, which is what you see here, and finding a new credit union, because, at least today, UTFCU ~~ROCKS~~ SUCKS.

Why I'm NOT Voting for Barack Obama

2008-10-14T21:52:00.002-04:00

I don't normally consider myself a political person. In most political races I am luke-warm on the issues at best, and rarely if ever take the time to actually read up on the candidates. Two days before I go vote, I might dig around and do a little bit of research to make sure there's nothing on my chosen candidate that I would consider a "deal breaker" per se, and if I don't find that information in my cursory search, then I proceed with my vote as usual. Inevitably, I get to the polling location only to discover that there was something on the ballot that I didn't even know was an issue to begin with and that winds up being a "close your eyes and pick" vote because I am completely uninformed.

But I digress...

This year's Presidential campaign, however, is different. I don't know why I suddenly, I don't know, care, but Presidential fever has hit the nation. Considering the fact that the Presidential campaigns started gearing up almost two years ago, I really thought that everyone would be completely over the whole thing by now. Instead, the campaigns seem to be getting more and more heated as time goes by, and I see people becoming involved in politics who never cared enough about it before to do so--like me.

So, I feel strangely compelled to give my reasons for choosing NOT to vote for Senator Barack Obama in the 2008 Presidential Election. That's right, you read it, folks, I am a McPalin supporter. I even have a freakin' McCain/Palin sign on my front lawn as we speak--an act that I would have never imagined myself doing a scant 2 months ago. Yet there it sits, joined by its two friends belonging to houses down the street from us.

I have watched the political debates and I find myself growing frustrated with the ridiculous questions. If I have to hear about either McCain's or Obama's foreign policy experience/ideas I think I might scream. I DON'T CARE ABOUT THEIR STANCES ON FOREIGN POLICY! And I don't think that many Americans do. When I sit with my fellow teachers at lunch discussing the Presidential candidates, I promise that we have never ONCE mentioned foreign policy. Here are the topics I hear teachers expressing at the lunch table: health care, taxes, education (of course), and the military.

In my mind, the nation's health care system and taxes are inextricably linked. Either way you cut it, any proposed change to the health care system is going to affect our taxes--like it or not. While I can't say that I'm a huge supporter of McCain's idea which allows the basic principles of capitalism to influence healthcare, I can definitely say that I am 100% opposed to the concept of socialized health care that Barack Obama is suggesting. On his website, he (well, his writers) indicates that he wants to improve healthcare without government interference and then goes on to list 11 reforms that will all require government intervention. Last time I checked, anytime the government got involved in anything they screwed it up--and, typically, the more involved they get the more screwed up it becomes. Likewise, I refuse to believe that he thinks he's going to implement reforms without raising taxes. Rule about politics #1: Never believe a politician when they say they're not going to raise taxes. This applies to all politicians. Secondly, in case you missed this part: All these reforms aren't going to be rolled out all at once. They're going to be phased in. Like a dirty house, it only gets messier before it gets cleaner. This comes with at least one caveat: We could get half way through these grand reforms when, suddenly, President Obama and Vice-President Biden figure out that there isn't enough money to complete the reforms in a timely fashion. Or, even worse, they don't manage to complete their reforms before they leave office and the whole thing is left in a state of flux.

As I said before, I don't whole-heartedly support McCain's health care reform ideas, either. But I like them better. My sister-in-law pointed out the other day that people, generally, don't take the time to manage their own insurance efficiently until something happens forcing them to deal with it. Is it reasonable, she asked, to think that people from Tennessee are going to go looking for better insurance premiums in, say, Georgia? I don't know, but I know that I like having that option. If I choose not to go looking for other insurance, I have no one to blame but myself. I have no problems with competition and that's the basic premise behind McCain's health care initiatives. Allowing the basic principles of capitalism to apply to insurance. Competition is a great thing. Insurance companies who cannot remain competitive will fail because no one will want to use them. Insurance companies who offer a good product at a reasonable price will survive. Maybe United HealthCare will go away :-)

Education. I wish I could say that any one candidate has a good plan for education, but the reality is that neither is going to do anything worthwhile about No Child Left Behind which is almost the only thing I care about when it comes to education. All of their statements about education on their websites are simply asinine and serve only to prove that neither Senator has stepped foot in a classroom for more than 5 minutes since leaving college. Neither of them have a clue as to the unlying problems surrounding the education crisis in this country which means that all of their suggestions are bandaids at best. Thus, I can't make education a huge deciding factor in my case. However, don't think that just because the National Education Association is supporting Obama that his education plan is better than McCain's. Let me clue you educational outsiders in on something: the NEA is only in business for the NEA. They're not pro-student and half the time they're not even pro-teacher. They are pro-NEA. The only reason teachers really join the NEA anymore is for the liability insurance which no teacher should be caught dead without. But every year I see more and more of my fellow teachers failing to renew their NEA membership and turning elsewhere for liability insurance. If teachers won't support the NEA anymore, why should anyone else?

The final topic we discuss on a somewhat frequent basis is the military. I am truly still torn on this topic, partially because I have friends and co-workers who are and have been in the military. I want the troops to come home as much as the next person. I don't feel strongly in either direction on this, but I can't say that I don't care what the out-come is because I do. So, because I have been unable to ferret out my own feelings on this topic, I think it best to leave it for now and perhaps address it at a later time.

So, it sounds pretty sad that at the end of all this the only thing I can definitely say is that I definitely agree with McCain on health care. But there's more to my support than that. I think, as voters, we should realize that we are not really voting for the candidate so much as what they stand for. Obama wants to stand for change and progress. McCain, however, wants to embody honor and integrity.

I see the people that these candidates are trying to connect with, and I realize that, try as he might, Obama is not doing a very good job of connecting with the middle class, and I think part of that is because he doesn't really know who the middle class is. All of his reforms and policies aren't really designed to help me so much as they are designed to help those who are much lower on the socioeconomic scale than me. Don't get me wrong, I am all for helping people, but not when it's government mandated. And I am all for progress and change, but not when it comes on the backs of people who all ready are overworked and underpaid which is most of the middle class.

As a refresher, I looked up the definition of "integrity" and found this: adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty. Synonyms: rectitude, probity, virtue. See Honor. I don't typically associate the words "honesty" and "politics" in the same sentence--in fact, I sometimes wonder if the two terms aren't mutually exclusive. But, if I had to pick the one who I feel has more integrity, I have to say McCain has it hands down. I can't ignore the fact that Obama associates with some people who are less than savory and I am amazed at how quickly he seeks to distance himself from those people when their associations are less than convenient. I wish I could say it was a non-issue, but you and I both know that you are who you associate with. I see it with my students every day. You don't have to like it, but it's a fact: Humans gravitate towards individuals who are like themselves because they are most comfortable with them. You cannot honestly believe that Obama sat in Jeremiah Wright's church for 20+ years and didn't absorb at least a little bit of what the man was saying. And if he thought it was wrong, then he had a responsibility to disengage himself from the group WAAAAAY before he actually did. In addition to that, if he won't stand up to Jeremiah Wright and say, "You've crossed the line. My family and I are leaving" then he sure as hell won't stand up to a terrorist. That's just a little spineless in my opinion. And if he joined the church just for a little "street cred" so to speak, then he joined for the wrong reasons which only leaves me questioning his faith. I don't care if the man is Muslim or Christian or Jewish, but I wish he'd pick one and stick with it for awhile. If you can't be honest with me about a little thing like your faith, then what else are you not being honest with me about? If I question your honesty then I have to question your integrity and integrity is important to me.

Anyway, this post has gone on much too long. I could go on about the energy crisis, abortion, etc., but do you really want to read anymore? If so, I'll probably post again later about other issues so you can come back for more then :-)

Letter #2: Do not give up!!!

2008-09-29T23:05:00.002-04:00

Senators Corker and Alexander, Congressman Duncan:

I wrote a letter to you nearly a week ago expressing my displeasure with regards to what the media has steadfastly referred to as the "$700 Billion Bailout Plan." As previously noted, I am opposed to this plan for a multitude of reasons including the murky and disturbing relationship that FNMA and FDMC hold in association with the government, the concept of allowing private companies that made bad decisions to continue without facing adequate consequences and the notion that $700 billion dollars be disbursed so rapidly with so little scrutiny (and furthermore that any plan must include $700 Billion dollars).

I understand that the lobbying pressure on all of you is enormous. You are being pressed from all sides, including other members and leadership in the Congress, the President and his appointees and notable private industry groups and organizations. I truly appreciate this and am encouraging you to continue your fight. I am proud of the way Representative Duncan and 4 other members of the Tennessee delegation stood up to this political scourge during the roll call today. I exhort you to encourage all members representing Tennessee to stand up and fight for us, your constituents.

Further, I strongly encourage discussion and implementation of alternatives proposed by Governor Mike Huckaby, economist Brian Westbury, the Heritage Foundation and others. There are ways to encourage the markets to correct themselves without spending (as much) taxpayer money, without putting nearly sole control of a gargantuan pile of dollars in the hands of a few individuals, and without moving our economy closer to socialism.

We need to now draw a line in the sand and firmly state that no more will we be reliant on excessive amounts of debt to fund our economy and government. We must return to fundamentals, both as individuals and families as well as government. We must spend less than we earn, stick to our budgets and set money aside for a rainy day. This change will not be easy, nor will it be instant. However, we are a unique nation. We have withstood wars, outlasted our enemies and reacted honorably and amazing when we were attacked on our own soil 7 years ago. If we can withstand the atrocities of the World Trade Center attack, we can withstand what may be a very cold winter, economically speaking. We will stand together and become a stronger nation with a more robust economic base, a stronger currency and we will continue to be the envy of the world and the single desire and focus of enterprising immigrants that come to achieve their goals under the blanket of freedom.

In summary, I again insist "DO NOT GIVE UP!" Fight for those you represent and encourage others to continue to carry the message of the people. Produce a plan that involves the change to mark-to-market, insists on an insurance stand by the government rather than a buyout, changes capital gains tax to encourage investment and promotes fundamentally sound market principles. Do not extend loans! We will all be watching how you vote regarding this. If you vote for loans and excessive spending, not only will it cost you my vote, but it will cost you the vote of everyone I can persuade and convince.

Finally, thank you for your service during this difficult time. History will ultimately show who stepped up during this time of need and who did not.

Sincerely,

Dan Coates
Knoxville, TN

An Open Letter to Congressman Duncan, and Senators Corker and Alexander

2008-09-23T23:01:00.006-04:00

Honorable Representatives of the State of Tennessee,

I have never had or felt the need to personally contact my congressional representatives. Normally, I find there to be enough people representing my interests to suffice. However, with regards to the current financial issues on Wall Street and congressional action regarding that, I must speak up. This is due to the nature of the legislation, that is, a $700 billion dollar plan that has great pressure being applied to it to get passed in an extremely rapid and, in my opinion, rash manner.

As an informed and engaged citizen of this country, a resident of Tennessee and a constituent in your district, I am imploring you to reject this plan and instead consider enacting the following changes:

Change/Suspend the Sarbanes-Oxley accounting principle regarding mark-to-market for sub-prime loans only on a temporary basis.
Extend the FHA insurance program to include sub-prime loans.

The first item costs virtually nothing to implement, yet it stands an excellent chance of opening up the market for these currently unwanted financial products.

Admittedly, item 2 will not be free, but extending the insurance is far better than buying and managing these securities. The estimate that I read was $40 billion. This is less than 15% of the cost of the currently proposed plan.

I would prefer that these companies resolve these issues themselves rather than force me and the US tax-paying populous to buy stuff we don't need (like the mortgage businesses and insurance company we bought earlier this month).

Please apply laser-like focus to this item. While I personally believe that the media has over-dramatized the situation, it is still extremely important and should not be slowed down by additional controversial and/or partisan legislation.

Finally, I will again stress my opposition to spending $700 billion dollars to purchase these financial instruments. I will be closely watching how you vote in this matter. If you vote to add a massive figure to the national debt, not only will you never have my vote again, I will exercise every opportunity I have to influence my friends and family to withhold their vote as well.

As I noted above, prior to this, I have never been politically active. I believe that my action now, along with the action of others who have never participated in this way, speaks to the gravity of this issue.

Thank you for your time and consideration in this matter.

Kind Regards,

Dan Coates
Knoxville, TN

Additional Reference: http://www.daveramsey.com/tdrs/index.cfm/2008/9/23/Fix-the-bailout-with-mark-to-market?ictid=sptlt

Notes: I have personalized and submitted this letter to the congressional representatives listed above via e-mail. Please consider doing the same. Feel free to copy my letter. However, I encourage you to personalize your message to them rather than simply copy, since it reinforces your commitment to the issue.

Special Saturday Gasoline Edition

2008-09-13T09:30:00.004-04:00

Dear folks who think they're being gouged at the pump:

First, sit down, take a deep breath, and repeat after me: "I wish I had taken micro-economics in high school or college."

It is true that retail gas prices have shot up to very high values. I won't argue with you there. However, don't immediately pin the outrage on the gas stations. This situation is very much unlike price hikes that have previously occurred. In this situation, it's not that fuel is overly expensive (in that it was overly expensive to produce), but it is simply NOT THERE. Take, for example, my current home of Knoxville, TN. Gas prices have risen dramatically, and some stations are out of fuel. In fact, there are published reports that the fuel terminals (the places where fuel trucks get loads to deliver to gas stations) are out of fuel, and Knoxville is not an isolated case. This is happening all over the place.

So now we have gas stations frantically hunting for fuel to put in their tanks to sell. They're looking for fuel hundreds of miles around their location and coming up empty. When they do find fuel, they are finding that the suppliers (at the fuel terminals) are selling the fuel they do have for $5+ / gallon.

So, why would they do that?

Well, let me give you a little analogy. Perhaps as you tune across the many channels on your TV, you may, at one time or another landed on an airing of the Barrett-Jackson car auction. You watch as they roll a car on stage and then begin bidding ridiculous amounts for a pristine 1969 whatever-mobile. Why do they sell for so much considering that the actual value of all of the components and labor is significantly less?

One of the reasons is that there is a very limited supply. Consider that if instead of there being only one of these vehicles being sold at the auction, there were 12. Would that not reduce the price paid for each one?

Now, what if the auction set a rule that stated "you can only sell a car for $1,000 more than its cost to produce" ? Would people sell cars there? Probably not. Even if they did, the car would simply go to the first person who bid, rather than the person wanted it the most.

The same thing is happening to gasoline. There is a limited supply. Stations who have kept their prices low are out of fuel. Like the auction, the people who got there first, rather than the people who wanted it the most, got the fuel.

Then there are stations that have raised their prices. They are relying of the elasticity of the market to determine how much is sold. In addition, they are simply setting their price in line with their costs (remember, wholesale fuel is at $5/gallon). When you see high gas prices, among the many thoughts and ideas the flow into your head (aside from "that f*#%ing sucks") is "how can I either reduce the price to me or reduce my use of gas?" This is exactly how capitalism works, folks. We chose what we do based on the cost to us. This is one reason why we all don't commute by plane.

So let me now answer some questions you may have about this.

"Hey, I'm not in the South. Our gas comes from the Northeast. This is a total screw. I'm certain I'm being gouged!"

Are you really sure? Remember, we're talking about a shortage here. Prices are higher simply because you do have fuel and others don't. If your local fuel terminal has fuel, chances are that there's a bunch of fuel trucks coming up from the South to get fuel. Thus, there's more demand and even if there's not a shortage, per se, the terminals only have so much fuel available at any given time, and don't continuously get pipeline deliveries.

"I can't believe it! I'm sure that I'm being gouged. Somebody (i.e. the government) should do something."

They have, and they will. One of the issues we face in this country is that we not only have several grades (i.e. octane levels) of gasoline, there are also different formulations that are required in different parts of the country at different times of the year to comply with local EPA guidelines. Any given refinery can only produce one of these many formulations at a time. Therefore, fuel refined in Utah can't simply be distributed in Tennessee (unless it's the right formulation for the right time period). To help the fuel shortage situation, the government has rolled back these restrictions in terms of time period (allowing "winter blend" to be sold now), smog reduction (reformulated, low vapor point fuels) and fuel quality (allowing foreign distillates, which are not as tightly refined, to be allowed for use in the U.S.).

In addition, local, state and federal government is on alert for price gouging. To be honest, there will be a few cases where gouging really occur. But on the whole, the prices are simply set a given amount above cost (usually 5-15 cents). Most price gouging hearings will go like this.

State senator: You've been accused of price gouging. You charged $5.50 a gallon for gasoline.

Gas station owner: I'm sorry your honor, I wish it were cheaper, since I don't like to upset my customers. I rely on them coming into my store to by drinks and snacks to make my business work. However, here's my wholesale invoice showing that I paid $5,40 a gallon for fuel. I made 10 cents a gallon, which is no more than what I made when gas was $1.50, $2.50 or $3.50.

State senator: Uhh, ok. I guess you didn't.

So folks, instead of getting mad, please count to ten, and think about what the market is really saying. I will paraphrase for you. "Gas is currently in short supply. Try to cut down on its use. If you don't, you will pay what the market dictates."

So, why isn't there any fuel? That's another excellent question, but it's one for another post. I'll give you a hint: most of the shortage is not Ike's fault. It's Ike's brothers fault.

Also, if you're still confused, here's an excellent post that describes it better than I did: http://shotsacrossthebow.com/archives/003044.html#003044

Serious political-like stuff

2008-09-12T07:00:00.001-04:00

Before I get into this post, I'll just disclose that I lean to the right. I know exactly who I'm voting for in the presidential race. I endorse the McCain/Palin in the presidential race, and I encourage you to vote for them as well, but more than that, I simply encourage you to vote and participate in the democratic process. In order to function at our best, we need to have citizens that exercise their civic rights.

I had originally planned to write a comparison of the preambles to the Republican and Democratic platform. Beyond all the hype, ads and spin, I believe that it's important to find out what each party believes and it would have been a truly excellent and almost scholarly comparison. However, I was surprised to find out that while the Republican platform is easily accessible via their website, a finalized version of the Democratic platform is not so easy to obtain. Draft copies can be found online, and I do recommend that you read both, but I don't feel it would be fair to compare a final version to a draft. While I can't necessarily say that the Republican platform wins due to forfeit, I must express my disappointment in the DNC for failing to make this document easily accessible.

However, in the search for the platform papers, I did find something else to review, their websites.

Websites being compared:

RNC - http://www.gop.com/
DNC - http://www.democrats.org/

Date of review: September 11th, 2008
I am reviewing the front pages only.

As you might expect, each website is themed in each party's traditional colors. The headers are very similar. They each have title graphics, links to join e-mail lists, a menubar and a link for Spanish speakers/readers. In addition, both sites have links for contributions, social networking links and each has graphics in memorial of 9/11.

In terms of web technology, the Republican site is more dynamic and makes use of more web technology. Their rotating panel sets them apart from the Dems.

Other differences:

Each site has a Blog menu, the DNC has no subitems, while the RNC links to 5 different blogs, including 3 for the McCain campaign.
Each party clearly is on the warpath against the opposite ticket. However, the Democrats are more aggressive in this area with 11 items/sections against McCain and/or Palin versus 4 items/sections on the Republican site.
Both sites have sections aimed at specific populations. On the GOP side, it's called "Groups" and the DNC lists it as "People." The Republican list appears to be a subset of the Dems list with the exception of a section directed at "Catholics"... kinda interesting. The DNC attempts to appeal to 7 groups beyond the ones commonly shared with their conservative counterparts. They are: Asians, the disabled, LGBT, Native Americans, Rural Americans, Union members, and veterans/military.
On the issues, both parties address health care, energy, retirement/social security, national security and tax reform. However, each has sections for issues pertinent to them. In additional to those just listed, the GOP has sections for Faith & Values, Education, Jobs & Economy, Legal Reform and Nominations. The DNC has sections for Open Government, Science & Technology, Environment & Climate Change, Immigration Reform and Civil Rights and Liberties.
Oddly enough, each site has more images of their opponent on the front page than their own candidate. The Republican site does have John McCain and Sarah Palin on their rotator, keeping him above the fold, but only when that panel rotates into view. The Dems site has a static image of Obama and Biden, but it's in the form of a web-sticker that is part of the footer on the site.

Visually, the Dem site is less cluttered and cleaner than the Republican site. Aesthetically, I would have to give the edge to the DNC for making the site easy to quickly read and review.

Overall, both sites have their strong points, both from a political and purely analytical standpoint. In additional, I would like to note that I think some of each site's design was modified for 9/11, so that may skew the results slightly. In my opinion, the RNC's site has the slight edge, since it maintains its ability to stay on message and keep looking forward by effectively using web technology. However, it should be noted that this edge is very slight. The DNC from a universal appeal point of view seems to handily beat the Republicans. They have sections that appeal to far more groups (although the practice of fracturing groups is questionable). They also make social networking with other dems much more simple and straightforward. I think the DNC would clearly win this tug-of-war if it reduced screenspace focused on McCain attacks and focused more on its strategy and plans.

In the end, it's not really what I think, but what is effective. We'll know the result of that in a couple months. In the interim, I recommend that you visit the sites of the candidates and their parties. Take a moment to really analyze what you are reading. Determine what you like and what you don't like. Evaluate for yourself whether a candidate has a solid stance on the issue or if they use words to detour you away from the answer.

I don't want to see it

2008-09-10T07:00:00.001-04:00

I, like many others, enjoyed watching the first full weekend of NFL football, as well as the second weekend of college football. Watching live sports is, at times, a true joy to behold. There's no script and no one knows how it's going to turn out. However, one thing got me upset this weekend. It was an advertisement. Now, normally, I use TiVo and don't deal with commercials, but this is live programming, and I was watching in real time, so that option wasn't available to me.

When I tell you what upset me, you'll probably call me backwards or reactionary or something, and, I'll admit, it probably has a lot to do with the fact that I'm now a dad (despite the fact that this isn't an issue...yet).

So, what is this horrible ad, this terrible waste of video bandwidth? Glad you asked! It's Cialis and Viagra, the venerable magic pills of manhood. Commercials for these products are far from new and the various methods that they use are pretty standard for big companies. Here's my issue: These commercials openly talk about sex and smear themselves all over the airwaves during the middle of the day on a weekend, during pro football games. While I would agree that they certainly are hitting their target audience, I would argue that they are hitting sensitive audiences a bit too hard.

What do I mean by this?

I mean that young boys who watch football along with their dads, uncles and brothers (aunts, moms, and sisters too), who run outside at recess to throw the football around, who play pee-wee football in hopes of someday playing for a great team, who look up to their favorite NFL players as role models and heroes, are being exposed to monologues like this, repeatedly, over the 3 hours of a regular football game.

"Cialis is only for men healthy enough for sexual activity....Erections lasting more than four hours, though rare, require immediate medical help."

Normally, these ads show couples walking along a beach or some inane activity, however, for some reason I was particularly disturbed to see one of the most recent commercials where the man and woman started throwing stuff off of a coffee table, presumably to "clear some space." Like all ads, the shot pans out and we see no more, but seriously, how much do we really have to see? Can we assume that the next ad will show a strip tease?

Along another tangent, does anyone else find it odd that ads for hard liquor cannot be shown until after primetime, but ads for ED medication can be shown practically around the clock?

Before we go any further, let's get one thing straight. I'm not a prude. I have absolutely no problems with these ads later in the evening and I've been a big fan of steel pan music way before it was hijacked by Girls Gone Wild videos. My issue again is this: Drug Companies: You are peddling a product whose sole purpose is to get your customer laid, a dignified, ego laced lay to be sure, but once again, your product is exclusively a tool for having sex. Why must you peddle your wares in front of children watching their heroes accomplish amazing things on the field.

I would refer my child to you for the birds-and-bees talk, since you brought it up, but as we've demonstrated here, your judgment is somewhat questionable.

Why isn't this easier than it is?

2008-09-08T07:00:00.000-04:00

After a monthlong impromptu blog hiatus, I am back. I owe most of this drought to laziness. It comes down to this. You have to always be posting. You have to keep doing it, no matter what, even if what you write isn't worth caring about. Just...keep...writing. For those of you looking for some useful and/or interesting content, I am sorry. You may need to check back in a few months.

So, over the past month, I have been easing into my new job duties. I have shifted out of a system administrator role and back into a developer role. While I am extremely capable as a system administrator, I'm not one and I do not desire to be one in the long term. However, in my personal opinion, I find it to be extremely important for a system administrator to have the mentality and some of the skills of a programmer in order to be truly effective, but that's another blog entry (gotta space these ideas out).

In my development role, I am primarily using Visual Studio.NET 2008 and more specific than that, writing ASP.NET applications with a VB.NET code-behind. This is a big shift for me in that prior to this, I had done zero ASP.NET development. In terms of web development, I had done some ASP, and some PHP, and the last Visual Studio version I used consistently was 2003 (but mostly Windows forms and console apps).

So it came as a shock to me that in over 5 years of evolution, visually building a web project in Visual Studio.NET is still very primative and not terribly usable. This, despite the fact that VS2008 continues the trend of being more bloated and slower than previous versions. Now, perhaps I'm being too demanding, and you can also argue that I don't truly understand or appreciate the concepts and fundamentals of web design, but I ask you, why can't developing a web app be as simple, if not nearly the same as developing a Windows form application? Why can't I be allowed to simply drag controls onto the screen and place them in an arbitrary location? Why can't I move some stuff around and align the edges of some controls instead of having to finagle with HTML tables until things are "just right" ?

To me, it's nearly a sin that I find the most useful and frequently used edit screen to be the HTML markup screen. But you know something, I almost like it that way.

Being somewhat cynical and jaded (especially from my previous position), I have a very strong distrust for pretty much any tool that offers let me do something and take care of the rest of it "behind the scenes." I don't like "behind the scenes." Behind the scenes is where the wizard sits. It's where the deals go down, the money gets laundered, and where David Copperfield makes his millions.

Visual Studio 2008 has a name for "behind the scenes." It's summed up in the keyword "partial." Partial classes, functions and methods allow a developer to put some code for a given, atomic coding object, in more than one file, at the developer's discretion. While Microsoft states some interesting and potentially "good" uses for this feature, it ultimately contributes to the generation of less maintainable code. Ah, but I digress....

Perhaps I shouldn't complain about the difficulty. Some people claim that classic VB gave us a horde of programmers that should never have been programmers (and I've met some of them). Adding this technical barrier might actually be something of a good tech check to throw out the "riff raff." Maybe there's a group of people, waiting patiently at the door...waiting for the day that Microsoft releases an ASP.NET IDE that truly allows drag and drop, arbitrary positioning and extremely flexible controls. Maybe....

Wiki wiki

2008-08-11T07:00:00.000-04:00

Recently, I was introduced to Sharepoint's wiki section (in terms of it being a subset of the larger SharePoint system). Being well versed in writing wiki pages under Trac, I tried it out with great trepidation. A lot of this trepidation comes from the fact that Microsoft is notorious for poorly implementing a product that has already existed as open source.

My take: It's not completely useless.

For someone with no previous experience with wiki editing in other environments, it might be considered an ok system. However, it has a serious amount of growing up to do.

Let's start with the interface. First, the interface demands that you run IE. If the server detects that you are running another browser, it penalizes you by downgrading the user interface significantly. For Firefox users, you can work around this by installing the IE tab extension and setting up Sharepoint to always run in an IE tab. Also, for Firefox users, there's some settings that also help with avoiding repeated authentication. prompting.

Under the IE-only controls (which is really the only ones you'll use since the plain text HTML markup interface will pretty much drive you off), you will experience editing similar to that under MS-Word. In fact, it appears that this was the singular focus of the Sharepoint team. Not only do you have the basics of font size and font styling, you also have access to all fonts on your workstation (because access to Wingdings 9 is clearly a must have...forget that it shows up as an unrecognized font to everyone else....). There also exists the ability to insert tables and pictures in nearly the identical manner to that as Word.

Microsoft implemented 2 features that allow them to call this a wiki. Both were implemented in an exceedingly basic manner.

First, like most wiki's, the post can be edited by any member of the group and a version history of the post is kept to allow for rollback. However, I am very disappointed in that it lacks a post preview function and the ability to tag posts with keywords.

Second, the Sharepoint wiki allows you to create a forward wiki link by enclosing text in brackets (such as [[Completely New Page]] ). This works ok, but it lacks the ability to change the text associated with the link (unless you instead make it a hyperlink).

My biggest disappointment is that the system is immature when compared to other wiki products. Take, for example, Trac (my preferred system). Here's a list of features that I regularly use that are lacking from SharePoint:

preview pages
tagging / tag clouds
inter-system fast linking
ticket/task links (with strikeout when item is closed)
source code repository linking / changeset linking
auto-creation of page outline / indexes
wiki macros
syntax highlighting
page change e-mail notification (page subscription)
external site inline includes
attachments

Again, it's not that Microsoft has implemented these things wrong or implemented them in an entirely incompatible way, it's simply an immature product that will probably not include features like this for at least two major version cycles. Also, Trac benefits from its extensible plug-in system. At least 3 of the features listed above come from plug-ins I have applied to our system. To be fair, the argument can be made that Sharepoint lacks certain features of Trac (such as integration with a source code repository). However, that doesn't prevent them from offering features to integrate their existing systems including the blog section, discussion forums, calendar and tasks.

Other news:

Whew, I took one week of vacation, but apparently decided to take a 2 week blog vacation. Hope my readership was not completely lost and gone ;-).

If you think of any topics you'd like me to discuss here, send 'em my way. This in no way guarantees that I'll write about it, but it might help me to replenish the idea pool.

My apologies to everyone I lost on this post due to its highly technical nature.

Have a great week!

On the road...

2008-07-25T21:00:00.002-04:00

I'm writing this ahead of time. We're on the road and heading for the promised land...the land of beer and cheese. This time around, we chose to drive overnight due to the fact that we have a 5 and 1/2 month old with us. While we acknowledge that this is somewhat dangerous, it's significantly less stressful than stopping every two hours to take care of our infant son.

Check out my twitter page to see what's going on.

She's just getting warmed up....

2008-07-23T07:00:00.000-04:00

My wife is a teacher at a local high school. She teaches biology. Our pairing may seem surprising considering my strong tech background, but I feel that we compliment each other quite well in that we do not overlap in our areas of expertise.

Naturally, we discuss issues in each of our individual fields. Unfortunately for me, the ability for her to cross over to tech discussions is significantly more difficult than me crossing over to education. This isn't surprising considering that everyone has been involved in education yet only a few of us choose to pursue software development (the few, the proud, yada yada....)

Over time, mostly through her studies and research, we have discussed various education topics including the sensational and much maligned No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).

Here are some choice quotes from my spouse on the topic:

"NCLB is the result of people who have never stepped inside a public school in their lives trying to tell those who have been there all along how to do things."

"The act's one-size-fits-all approach fails miserably. Austin East and Hardin Valley High are subject to the same rules. Which one do you think will get screwed?"

"The public is getting wise to NCLB. Take a look at this."

Despite the good intentions of the act, it fails miserably in several areas. In many cases, it actually harms education. Perhaps the only group that the act benefits without question is testing services like ETS due to the blind adherence to standardized tests. Don't get me wrong, standardized tests are important, but what you learn from it, and how you react should not be an overly simplistic equation that pushes our schools towards mediocrity, which, I would like to point out, is the opposite of exceptionalism.

It is my hope that my wife will be able to sit down and take a turn guest writing a blog in the near future.... after all, she now hold a Masters degree (huzzah!)

Other news:

Yes, I switched the normal order of topics. This will enable me to live-blog from the road while we make our way up to Wisconsin overnight on Thursday. I'm not sure how this will turn out... maybe one post, maybe more.

I'll be on hiatus during vacation. Not a big surprise there. With any luck, I'll come back refreshed and ready to write about plenty more topics.

Agile profile in style

2008-07-21T07:00:00.001-04:00

I am currently in the process of transitioning to a new role at my workplace. The change for me will be one of moving from a system administrator position to a software development role, which I am more classically trained for.

The team that I am transitioning to has been trying out various aspects of different agile software methods, most notably focusing on Scrum. Having no formal knowledge of Scrum prior to a few days ago, I took it upon myself to not only review Scrum, but to become familiar with agile software development in general and various agile methods including Scrum, Agile Modeling, Test/Feature/Behavior Driven Development, and Extreme Programming.

Overall, I have found, based on personal experience, that traditional sequential development methods (such as waterfall, which is what I was taught in school) are quite excellent in theory, and that's about it.

Agile development seeks to reduce risk in software development by producing numerous iterations, establishing open and frequent communication, accepting change requests happily and gracefully, and keeping the design environment open and available for review.

I believe that agile is really a success story in effecting change from the bottom up (rather than the traditional org chart flow from top down)... which is probably one of the many reasons why it has taken and will continue to take some time for it to become the most common industry practice. I get the impression, based on the reading I have done, that developers of agile methods tend to have a chip on their shoulder with regards to establishment and order and could possibly be classified as classic computer hippie types. Certainly, one of the many tenets of agile methodology is the lack of hierarchy and chain of command. Ironically, this counterculture image actually conflicts directly with the basic tenets of Extreme Programming (XP). XP is based on solid, tested, programming methods, but taken to extreme levels. Therefore, in a sense, agile embodies the most tried and true development methods that have been developed and refined over time.

Agile methods do seem to be quite useful and quite popular as well. So I began to ask myself, "when shouldn't agile methods be used?" Well, there actually are a few cases where certain agile methods should be discouraged. They are:

Projects involving critical systems where critical is defined as relating to the people's health and safety (e.g. medical equipment, aircraft control and management, etc.)
Projects involving non-senior level developers
Very large scale development (although this is being researched in terms of scaling)
Company or organization with strict command and control structures

Of that list, the one that jumps out to me is the requirement for senior level developers. I fear this because the effect of it is not immediately seen, but rather, would be pervasive and hidden from view throughout the project. To the customer, the effect would be a longer time to develop, which might make them question the agile method in the first place.

Of all the flavors of agile, I believe my organization made a wise choice in selecting Scrum. The process itself is fairly simplistic (a quick 4 page read), yet it embodies the principles of agile quite well. The key to implementation will be to abide by all aspects, rather than picking and choosing what "feels" right. However, this is not as critical as fully embracing all practices of XP (as noted in the intro here).

DON'T PANIC!!!

2008-07-18T07:00:00.002-04:00

By now, you have probably heard that the U.S. economy isn't doing so well. Perhaps you believe that we are in a recession period. Maybe you've heard that a medium sized bank went under. You may also believe that we're in big trouble considering that the DJIA is down 3,000 points from it's apex.

So what?

If you believe that we are in a horrible tailspin that will unleash the next Great Depression, congratulations. You've fallen prey to the bad is good / if-it-bleeds-it-leads media with election year super-hyped goodness. Despite the fact that *I* realize that this is their angle, I think that it's getting out of hand and potentially irresponsible.

I liken the media hype to an obnoxious commercial currently running for Splenda brand sweetener. Visualize with me....

"They'll be drinking sugary drinks by the gallon. You're headed for, a SUGAR SITUATION!"

Puh-lease....

Take, for example, the recent failure of IndyMac Bank. On Monday morning, there were reports of lines wrapping around blocks and angry customers filling the streets. 95% of these people can count themselves as being sucked in by this abusive and out-of-control media machine. Understand that I didn't just pull the 95% out of a hat. It comes from the following facts:

IndyMac bank had 200,000 customers as of its closing
190,000 of them had accounts below FDIC insurance limits.

Therefore, 95% of the customers had no reason or business being a vignette for the media to splash across the screen (source here).

You might worry that bank failures are big news. Well, that may be, but here's some very interesting food for thought. So far this year, 5 banks have failed. 4 out of 5 of those never broke the national news. This is nowhere near a record, not even for recent history, or even this millenium. In 2002, 12 banks, that's right TWELVE banks failed and were taken over by the FDIC. Does anyone remember any of them, or even that it occurred? I'll acknowledge your silence as a valid answer in the negatory.

Now let's turn to the stock market. I would like to preface this by saying that basic predictions in the stock market are similar to basic weather forecasting. One very rudimentary form of forecasting is the persistence method. This says that the weather in the near future will be similar to the weather now. This type of forecasting is quite accurate for the short term, but becomes rapidly inaccurate over the long term. Forecasting the stock market is similar. The market is down today, it's probably going to be similar tomorrow, but over the long term, we must use a different method.

So what does the long term say? Well, if we use history as our guide, we are at a very opportunistic time in the history of the market. Over 97% of all 10 year time spans in the history of the stock market (since 1924) have shown positive returns. (The two losing spans were in the 20's and related to run-ups and the great crash of '29.) (source) If I had money to invest, it would be an advantageous time to invest in broad index funds. Take the Dow, for example. The historical high for the DJIA is 14,279 (back in October 2007). Today we are at 11,446. If we assume that we will pull out of this and the economy will climb again, than one who invests now in an index tracking the Dow stands to gain over 24% on its climb back to the previous high. Even if one assumes that it takes 2 years for the economy to recover, the return is still 12% per year, which, doing some quick compound interest math, says that going at that rate, your money would double in 5 years. Isn't math great?

Taking these FACTS into account, is there a reason to be concerned? Probably, but only based on the idea that it's important to be aware of current events to speak intelligently about them. Is there a reason to be worried? Nope.

Get over it, and if you can't, turn off the TV and "stay off the damn internet."*

Other news:

Thanks for the responses! My personal start page has 3 tabs, Home (which contains a hodge podge of news and bookmarks), fun (satire, Fark headlines, and travel dreaming), and tech (useful tech gadgets and tech related RSS feeds). It's really in need of revision. Perhaps I'll make a point of revamping it and posting it here.

* - Quote attributed to Professor Michael Leckrone, various instances.

Getting started with the HOA

2008-07-16T07:00:00.002-04:00

Tonight, I attended an initial meeting to start the homeowner's association for our subdivision. This, at first, was kind of odd since usually the developer sets this up and gets it going. In our case, it ended up being a "let it ride" kind of set up.

The real impetus for starting the HOA was the announcement from the builder that effective sometime this month, they would cease maintenance of the common areas and stop paying the bill for the streetlights. They could be shut off any day now... we just don't know when.

There's a lot of weird issues and questions here. First, please raise your hand if you've ever lived somewhere that isn't gated that you had to (directly) pay to keep the streetlights on. Secondly, the setup of the Covenants, Codes and Restrictions for our subdivision specifies a homeowners association, but does not specify a mandatory fee or make paying fees mandatory. Therefore, even if we wanted to pay for the streetlights, we cannot compel the members of the subdivision to pay.

There were a lot of other issues, but I personally find it very interesting to see the start of a group that has a mandate, yet no authority. To be honest, it could be a bit of a nightmare....and a lot like No Child Left Behind.

Another interesting point was brought up: Supposedly, the developer was responsible for the original maintenance of the streets. Now that they're backing out, who maintains the streets? According to one person who attended the meeting, the county has not yet "adopted" the streets.

Weird, right?

For now, the first order of business is to get the essentials taken care of. Current suggestions include neighbors "adopting" nearby streetlights. Apparently, it costs $7.97 / month to run a streetlight, who knew?

Other news:

C'mon guys, I give you a great softball post to talk about (start pages) and all I get is dead silence?

Just turned on the All Star game in the 9th inning. Does anyone watch/care about major league baseball anymore?

What's in your start page?

2008-07-14T07:00:00.000-04:00

Over the many years that I've been a netizen, I have had a host of different homepages. They have included the UW website, a handwritten HTML page on my desktop, a blank page, or even this.

However, these days, and for the past several years, Google has been my start page for everything web.

My first question is, why would you start anywhere else?

It has already been noted by some that Google is really the start page of the internet. Sure, most browsers have some other page as default, and some organizations (including my own workplace) have their own intranet "hub." But what compelling reason do I have to choose those "other" options?

Google has nailed it when it comes to web real estate. They own Boardwalk and have 100 hotels on it to boot. Their iGoogle / individualized homepage product completely changed the way people interacted with start page websites. Not only is it super easily customizable debuting an AJAX interface when no one else had anything close (and most still do not), but they have fully embraced customized widgets and infinitely diverse content.

I think this needs to be emphasized, Google's philosophy with regards to outside content and interaction is fundamentally different from say, Microsoft. Google has no fear of people writing fantastic widgets, mini-apps, feeds, content or anything they dream up. They know their core competencies extremely well and fully embrace and acknowledge areas where they do not lead. This is in direct contrast to Microsoft (or even Apple) where the whole end-to-end experience is directed, tuned, tweaked, and ruled with an iron fist. If they didn't think of it, you don't need it.

So, what's your start page, or, to be more precise, what's in your start page?

Other news:

Thank you for the fantastic responses to Friday's post. I need to re-read the responses a little more and determine if I'm going to throw in a final thought. (I might not, considering how well the existing comments have covered it.)

I'm now two weeks out from vacation and I'm practically counting the minutes till. At this point, I don't have any content for while I'm out. I was thinking about prepping some posts ahead of time, but I may just go on hiatus during that period.

I have realized that my posting here has somewhat stifled my posts on Twitter. I am hoping to refocus and be more interactive. Somehow, I feel that I'm not being "fair" if I don't write actual comments rather than using it as a spamming tool for this blog.

Go ahead and let 'em (get gay married)

2008-07-11T07:00:00.002-04:00

Gay marriage should be allowed nationally without question, but it should also be understood that it has almost nothing to do with religion or morality.

Point: the origin of marriage is ancient and tied to various religions. I myself am only familiar with the Christian origin, however, based on the fact that it occurs in other cultures, it stands to reason that a marriage origin appears in more than just the Christian interpretation.

Point: In our country, while our government is based on very God-fearing and religious beliefs, it was stressed that there would be a distinction between government and religion (a direct response to the state sponsored Church of England).

Point: Our country is built on laws. Many of those laws weigh differently on married versus non-married people. For example, income taxes and retirement accounts apply differently to married people versus single people (and many times to the advantage of those that are married). Based on this, the government, despite its mandate to steer clear of religion, has been built around a fundamental concept found in several religions.

Let's focus on the primary objections to gay marriage. From what I can tell, the majority of this objection comes from those that contest that their religion objects to it or forbids this.

Now, we'll tie this together. The government, whose charge is to separate itself from the church, is inextricably wrapped around the ancient concept of marriage. The result of which is that several laws are biased towards married couples. Therefore, by that definition, it is biased against those that are not married or are unable to marry. Given that we also decree equality in rights given to our citizens, it natually follows that it would be illegal to bar a gay couple from receiving the same rights and privileges that a heterosexual couple enjoy.

Therefore, based strictly on our government's founding principles, marriage of homosexual couples should be legal.

However...

...the pendulum swings both ways. Just because the government decrees that gay marriage is legal does not imply that any specific organization (except government (read: JOP)) is required to marry any given couple. Since marriage is a religious practice, each group reserves the right to choose who they do and do not marry. True, this isn't much of a consolation for those who are morally opposed to homosexuals sharing the same government license that they enjoy, but at its heart, it reinforces the right of the people to practice their religion in a manner of their choosing.

Of course, we could always eliminate the inequalities between single and married people...see how far you get with that and let me know the results ;-).

Movie Review: WALL-E

2008-07-09T07:00:00.000-04:00

$10 movie scale score: $10

I'm going to keep this short. This is probably the best movie of the summer. There's plenty of glowing reviews regarding this movie. Go. See it. Enjoy feeling like you got your money's worth, even if it is an hour and 1/2.

Also, as usual, the short preceding the film is top notch....pretty much a shoe-in for the Oscar for Animated Short.

That's all I have to say. Now get out the door and go see it!

On Trac(k)!

2008-07-07T07:00:00.001-04:00

One of my most favorite tools in my work environment is Trac. Trac, for what it does, is truly amazing. I haven't found a better tool out there that manages issues/tickets, the source code repository, provides a project roadmap and is extremely extensible. Oh, and by the way, it's FREE!!!

I've been using this tool for over a year to help organize information within my team. In all honesty, without Trac (along with its Subversion integration), we'd be completely and utterly sunk. I find this tool so refreshing because it's easy, fast, efficient, customizable, integrable and again, FREE! Not only that, but there's a very large support community available as well as a development community focused around generating great plug-ins for the product (also free).

So, today, with great surprise, I found out that the folks behind Trac released their latest stable "major" feature release. Admittedly, it took some time to upgrade the environment due to the changes necessary for the plugins that we already have. However, when the smoke cleared, it turns out that the system is actually easier to manage and has a lot of great new features, including the ability to install practically everything via easy_install.

For me, easy_install is a bit of a departure from normal Windows installers. I'm very used to downloading what I need, then running an install package to get it running. Compared to that experience, easy_install is amazing. For most products, you simply have to call "easy_install " from the command line (once you have easy_install and its prerequisites installed) and it does the rest. Period. No downloading of packages, no installers. Easy_install downloads the product, compiles, and installs the component, AND it checks for dependencies as well. This came in very handy when installing all the packages I needed to replace the plugins that needed to be upgraded for the new version.

Anyway, on to Trac 0.11 for us. I'm already impressed with the default inclusion of the webadmin module, as well as the improvements to the repository browser. (Sigh), if only we kept actual dev code in here, we'd have instant visual "blame"/"praise" support.
.
I am eagerly looking forward to customizing the ticket workflow. This, more than anything else, will be a great benefit to our team.

Trac Team: My hat is off to you. You make a great product and you've proven that your system is competitive (and many times surpasses) very expensive commercial systems.

Capitalism and Socialism

2008-07-04T07:00:00.001-04:00

"Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one." - Thomas Paine, "Common Sense", 1776

The other day, I heard a fantastic definition of the difference between socialism and capitalism.

Take, as an example, a person in trouble financially. If your first thought is that the government should do something, then you are a socialist, or are moving/leaning that direction. If, on the other hand, your first thought is that their family/community/church should act to help them, then you are a capitalist, or you at least are moving/leaning that direction.

I specified financial trouble in the scenario above, but other situations, including job loss, substance abuse, and illegal behavior also lend themselves to this as well.

I may not be able to accomplish this all in one post, but I would like to propose that you (and I), as Americans, should study, analyze, and integrate capitalism into our lives. While I do not believe that I could ever prove that any given answer is the 'correct' answer, I would like to work to convince you, slowly, with patience, conversation and understanding, that a financially conservative, minimalist government is the optimal choice for a country built on personal freedom.

For now, let's start with the base that you abide by the following premises:

You believe that if you work longer and/or harder, you should have the right to be compensated for the extra work.
You prefer that those who excel should be recognized/rewarded for doing so.
You believe that goods and services of similar functional use can vary greatly on individual value (i.e. lakefront property is worth more than desert property, a Cadillac is more valuable than a Kia... not that there's anything wrong with Kia's).
You feel that bonuses, incentives, and rewards are a key part of a positive productivity feedback loop

If you agreed with the above, or even 50% of the above, your most optimal alignment is with capitalism. If, on the other hand, you feel that everyone should get the same salary, that everyone should always win at pee-wee soccer, and we should all relax because the government will take care of everything, I wish you well and hope that you find citizenship somewhere else. America just isn't for you. If you are too lazy to leave America (or you are waiting for the government to do it for you), you can at least consider yourself an actual or honorary resident of New Orleans.

This election year, you have a choice to make...and admittedly, neither choice is optimal, but I believe that the decision making factors are clear. You can choose to saddle yourself, your neighbors, your children, and your workplace with more taxes, more bloated government programs and more waste, or you can chose something else. I can't press the button for you, but I can at least shine my own flashlight on the situation.

Other news:

Aside: This wasn't a very good post. It rambled a bit. I know that already. But some days are like that. I was considering just skipping the 4th, but I didn't want to fall off the wagon after only a month. However, I might go on hiatus when I go on vacation.... or I could get busy and queue up some stuff to show while I'm gone... we'll see.

Trust me, it will get better.... ;-)

I like comments. Please post more. You have no idea how great it is to see comments to what I write.

Nothing Better

2008-07-02T07:00:00.000-04:00

Sometimes, coming up with topics to write about 3 times a week is tough to do. I try hard to keep a consistent rotation of work/tech related items on Mondays, home/personal on Wednesdays, and Fridays are community/opinion pieces. Looking at my idea list, I have plenty of opinions, but very few ideas for work/tech and personal, save reviews, which have their place every-so-often. But this week, I didn't want to do a review. I wanted to write about something else. So, I sat here listlessly trying to conjure up something interesting, witty, possibly profound or maybe just fun.

I should have focused about 4 feet to my left.

In a small jumper/bouncer, suspended from a doorframe is our nearly 5 month old child. We refer to this jumper/bouncer as the "jumpuh," and the actions that he performs in it as "jumpuh-ing." (This word is derived from the onomatopoeia and repetition of the first word) He is currently bouncing around, back and forth, sideways and slantways, making different volumes of ahh's, squeal's, and coo's. In addition to this, he is also hiccuping, which, I'm repeatedly told is extremely common for babies. In any case, the hiccups don't bother him in the least. He simply keeps jumping around, looking in all directions, trying to talk to different things including the back door, the TV (even though it's off), the coffee table, one of the cats, and myself. More than occasionally, he is jamming one or several fingers in his mouth.

I have to admit, I am enjoying fatherhood more than I ever expected to. True, there are a lot of sacrifices and it is definitely a lot of work, but at this point in my life, I don't see anything nearly as rewarding. I think this is further enhanced by the fact that I am a very "hands-on" dad: I quickly and easily clothe, change, and feed him. I am well capable of securing all car seats, highchairs, swings and other such devices. I have no concerns taking him out of the house on my own on a trip to pretty much anywhere...the park, the store, the car wash...it's all within our reach.

I can quickly see how this all affects him as well. He's very good at recognizing myself or his mother and will usually smile upon seeing us. When in the bouncer, he'll usually try to turn towards me and make noises to get my attention. Being a parent sometimes also gives you magical powers over your children. For example, a friend or grandparent is holding him, and he's fussing and about to start crying... well, you as a parent, sometimes possess the magic to quickly calm the child. I wish I could take credit for accomplishments like this, but many times, he just calms down simply because I picked him up.... I'll enjoy this now, because just like the 4 months previous, it will soon all be a memory as well.

This would traditionally be the part of the article where I say "yes, you too should do this," but to be honest, I know that parenting isn't for everyone. However, it's definitely for those who want a challenge unlike any other, and it's a great time to be a dad.

Reaching Out

2008-06-30T07:00:00.003-04:00

This post is dedicated to George Carlin, who passed away last week at age 71. Carlin, more than anything, was a master of words and phrasing. He developed a keen sense for situations and phrases we experience on a daily basis and making us realize how silly they are. An excellent example of this is his monologue on air travel (NSFW: language).

I deal with account representatives from large financial organizations on a regular basis. Now, while not central to the point of today's post, these account reps usually have titles that make them seem far more important than they really are. Some of these titles include "Customer Relationship Manager," "Account Representative, Associate Vice President," and "National Accounts Manager."

Big deal... I'm the vice president of getting stuff done, so there.

Anyway, when I speak with these people, they tend to use obnoxious euphamisms that make every day activities sound like international trade negotiations. Today's feature? Reaching out.

Example from theoretical conversation:

"I understand your concern. Let me reach out to our liaison at Initech to follow up regarding your issue."

They could have said "call," or "e-mail," or even, "Let me get a hold of someone over there," but no, it's always reaching out. I for one, do not want anyone reaching out to anyone else. The phrase reminds me of the old AT&T slogan "reach out and touch someone." As much as I don't want anyone reaching towards anyone else, I certainly do not want them touching them either. Please, keep your hands to yourself! I'm pretty certain that nearly all uses of the word "touching," when used as a verb are grounds for dismissal in most workplaces these days.

So folks, the moral of the story is, don't reach out, and keep your hands to yourself. Here's a nice tool to help you with the former.

The Easy Way to Pay

2008-06-27T07:00:00.001-04:00

Mr. Obama,

It has recently come to my attention that you have secured enough delegates to become the Democratic nominee for President of the United States. Congratulations, this is quite an accomplishment. Winning the jackpot that is the nomination is an amazing feat and I wouldn't want to take away from that. But...

Well, you see, I had hopes of hitting the jackpot too, or possibly winning the lottery, and to be honest, it hasn't panned out so well. One could argue that I would have a greater chance of winning the lottery if I actually purchased a ticket, but I maintain that the statistical odds of winning are nearly identical either way.

In any case, I seem to have incurred some debt in pursuit of the jackpot. It currently stands at $200,000. This is a large sum of money, and I was hoping, since you won the jackpot and have some friends who think they might be holding the winning ticket, that you would pay down my debt for me. As I mentioned, I had every intention on winning the jackpot. Not winning never even crossed my mind, since I am a very positive thinker and I always have a positive attitude with a dogged persistence, even in the face of complete and total failure.

Anywhom, I figured that for you and your friends, 200 G's is a pretty small amount that could easily be wiped from the slate. If you can share the jackpot, you know where to find me. I look forward to seeing you or your signature on a check to me in the near future. Good luck with that President thing.

Sincerely,

Dan

Finally!!

2008-06-25T07:00:00.001-04:00

I buy things on eBay from time to time, and usually I have pretty good luck with the items I get. Occasionally, there are issues. I experienced an issue on my most recent purchase and it took nearly a month to get it resolved. Here's the rundown.

Through eBay's "second chance" feature, I won a Garmin GPSMap 60csx on May 27.
I completed the checkout via the eBay website and verified my address.
As a good/impatient eBay buyer, I used PayPal to pay for my item.
My item shipped on June 1st.

Then, I noticed a problem....

It turned out that while I had updated my address on eBay, my old address was still listed on PayPal. Unbeknownst to me, there's a rule for sellers that states that packages must be shipped to the PayPal address, not the eBay address. This is not stated anywhere during the checkout process.

Despite my message to the seller to change the address prior to shipping, it ended up suffering though the longest trip between Georgia and Tennessee, ever (click "Show Details").

During this ordeal, I finally contacted the seller. By the way, I would like to say that while the seller was fair, they were incredibly unresponsive unless strong language and repeated e-mails with read receipts were sent.

I watched as my package ping-ponged back and forth between Atlanta and Knoxville. I even went to the post office in Knoxville and asked them to flag down the package if it ever came back again (fortunately/unfortunately, it never returned).

After nearly two weeks, my package came to rest at the seller's address. It then took another 5 days to get the seller to resend the package out (needing at least 3 e-mails, 2 with read receipts). Finally, on Friday, June 20th, 24 days after winning the item, I had it in my hands.

So, what do I think of it? That will be the subject of a further post. However, I am enjoying what I see so far. I'll write a review once I am able to post some finds.

As for my eBay experience, I do not think that it is entirely the seller's fault, and certainly I can share in the blame for not having a current address on PayPal. However, I feel that if shipping info as it relates to eBay/PayPal were more explicit and if the seller were more responsive, this would not have been an issue. Even if the seller was not able to change the address, I could have met the package at the old address (an apartment complex) and stopped it there by speaking with the apartment manager.

LiveBlog: Workin' overnite

2008-06-22T22:13:00.012-04:00

4:55am - Time to pack it in. Looks like everything went well. Now I must sleep....

3:57am - Wrapping stuff up, re-enabling stuff... cleaning up more e-mail. Not quite Inbox0, but I did clear 140 items. Realization - I haven't moved since 10:15pm. Ugh....

3:27am - Last site complete!!! Celebratory song: House of Pain - "Jump Around".

2:59am - Things are going quite well... almost done... I'm now hearing low rumbles outside... not sure if it's street cleaning trucks or thunder... *shrug*....

1:32am - 161 sites complete on east coast... time to move inland... inbox count: 155 - music: Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Californication."

1:01am - Starting on e-mail sweep that I've been neglecting. Currently 204 items, going for inbox zero.

12:59am - Now at 140. Mgr left for the night, seeing as everything was going smoothly. I guess it's time to crank up the muzak again - TMBG - "Experimental Film".

12:21am - So far, so good. We've completed 100 locations and things are going quite smoothly. Mgr and I are sitting here just watching the auto-confirms roll in from the devices. Burger, fries and coke are gone.

10:48pm - First 20 locations: loaded - Playlist: loaded. Wendy's Classic Double: unwrapped. First song on playlist: Europe - "Final Countdown." Yes, I know the song is awesomely bad....

10:37pm - Finishing up some last minute paperwork.... Disabling some automated processes that would attempt to undo what I'm about to do. One of our tech managers came in to look over my shoulder at the process. At least I won't be the only one in the lab tonite.

10:20pm - Just sat down and am warming things up. The rest of the team should be getting on site in 10 minutes. The "go" button get hit at 11pm sharp, and we haven't been waived off...yet.

I thought I would change it up for this post. Tonight I am working overnight to perform a special config roll out for my organization. I was planning on getting a nap earlier today and actually eating decently, but parenthood sometimes prevents that from occurring. So, in similar vernacular as the famous Blues Brothers quote, "I got 324 sites to go, a Wendy's #2 combo, a charged IPod, it's dark, and I'm wearing sunglasses.

Updates will appear at the top. Summary at the bottom.

Summary - Not a terribly exciting night overall, but thus is life.

Other items - It seems that my vent has been answered... email excerpt below

We have a group of people who normally receive checks set up as {Check Processing} in your e-mail list. If you receive checks that do not belong to you, please use this e-mail group to communication your search for a home for these checks……..instead of the Support Center group.

If you normally receive checks, please check the properties of this e-mail group and if I have left your name off, please let me know.

Thanks for your assistance with this “reduction” in mass communication! Have a great weekend!

So, it's a small victory...for me and the rest of the company. Maybe somebody around here actually reads this thing. I could have readership in the upper single digits... whew!

Saudis of the West

2008-06-20T07:00:00.000-04:00

Oil oil, oil, oily oil. It's the subject of the nation. It affects everyone either directly (via actual fuel prices) or indirectly (through higher freight costs for goods purchased). I wish I had a single true cohesive plan to tie everything together, but alas, it's just too complicated. Therefore, I offer up the following thoughts and opinions to the electronic ether.

Effect on Americans - It's very hard to decipher how hard the increases in fuel prices affects the country as a whole. I haven't looked into enough statistical data to truly determine how bad it is (in fact, it may be far too early to draw any solid conclusions). However, I think that we not only have to look upstream (oil markets, exploration, refining, etc.), we also have to look downstream at the consumer. From personal observation, it is shocking to realize how many people live paycheck to paycheck...needlessly. We are raised in a culture of debt. Americans are seduced into believing that their income should be portioned out into payments - car payments, credit cards, cell phone contracts, "no interest, no payments until next year." Americans simply don't save. Thus, when the world changes around them, their income gets pushed in ways they never imagined (mostly because we don't budget either). In short, the effect would be significantly muted if we as Americans had been savvy and saved for a rainy day rather than being self indulgent and hedonistic.

Drill Here Drill Now, Pay Less - I'm not advocating that oil companies should be thought of as victims. I think there's some other factors in play, but let's be realistic and somewhat capitalistic. Factoring in offshore oil, the 1/2 of 1 percent of ANWaR already reserved for oil exploration, oil shale in the west, oil potential in the Dakotas, and the needless oil subsidies paid to well owners in the western U.S. to NOT drill, the U.S. shouldn't be an oil importer. We instead should be exporters. We should be the Saudis of the West. We as Americans need to prove that we can and will do it better than anyone else. Even for those environmentalists that protest that this would further solidify our dependence on oil, the fact remains that today's alternatives to motor vehicle fuel contain far less energy than diesel or gasoline. Any solution that gets developed will be expensive and only purchased by those who can afford it first, then flow to the 2nd and 3rd world as the price for these alternatives drops. In the meantime, the U.S. can establish itself as a global oil powerhouse and render the extremists of the Middle East impotent since we would no longer be compelled to do business with them.

Fuel Tax Holiday, or Sean Hannity Needs Revision - In general, I, as a fiscal conservative can agree with most of what Sean Hannity says. However, I strongly disagree with a temporary rollback of the 18.4 cent federal fuel tax. This is a silly, pandering, gimmicky measure that will do little to ease the burden on Americans. Consider the following figures.

Between Memorial Day and Labor Day, there are approximately 15 weeks.
The average American fuels their vehicle once a week
The average fill is 12 gallons (although I will factor on 15 gallons to have a safe overestimate).
Therefore, the total saved by an average American on a theoretical fuel tax holiday would be $41.40 - barely enough for a dinner for two (including appetizer & dessert) at a nice sit down restaurant.

In addition to this, how do you think Americans would react to a 18-19 cent increase at the pump after Labor Day? Exactly. Now, a permanent rollback of the fuel tax or a significant reduction would be ok, but it would have to be accompanied by an equivalent or greater reduction in spending, which for Congress is unrealistic.

(Corn) Ethanol sucks - Sorry folks, corn is not the next fuel. Maybe switchgrass will prove itself out, but we need to stop with the corn based ethanol. The energy output vs. input ratio is terrible, it's highly susceptible to shortages, and it strongly and adversely affects food prices. If you really want ethanol, do it like Brazil.

Souring the milk drinking by the GPOM - It appears that the Giant Pool of Money found somewhere to go after taking such a beating in the U.S. housing market. I believe that speculation, more than anything else, is the biggest factor in the run up in oil prices. Unfortunately, the only way to stop this is to either offer a better option (which may come, but will rely on the Federal Reserve raising interest rates) or somehow "sour the milk" by making oil speculation less attractive. I think the first step in this is to publicly expose the groups, trusts, banks and companies that buy oil futures. Oil companies may be the whipping boys of today, but wait until the American people find out that they've been sold out by their local bank, university, or car insurance company.

In any case, I wish everyone well in dealing with the high cost of fuel. Whether you decide to carpool, hypermile, drill for more oil, or just get an extra job. Have a great summer!

Movie Review: "The Happening" (2008)

2008-06-18T07:00:00.000-04:00

To start, this type of movie is not my bag, baby. But...my wife is a big M. Night Shyamalan fan and she won the coin toss. (Note to self: find weighted coin).

The Happening is an eco-thriller with uninspring characters, awkward situations, and a vague, yet annoying and preachy message...but does it really deserve this type of criticism?

I quickly classified this as an eco-thriller upon leaving the theater. However, this can be discounted somewhat if Shymalan's other movies are put into context. Having covered the supernatural (Unbreakable), paranormal (The Sixth Sense), alien (Signs), and mytho-folklore (Lady in the Water), it certainly isn't unnatural to focus on nature as the next adversary.

I find that the movie does raise a couple interesting questions. Considering the church's traditional view, does committing suicide unconsciously deny access to eternal life? Moreover, if the answer is affirmative, is this a portrayal of an attack so devastating that it not only takes one's physical life, but their spiritual life as well?

However, most moviegoers view flicks to be entertained rather than explore deep philosophical questions. In catering to that crowd, I can say the following: Don't go.

Many critics will be tough on Shymalan simply because he is who he is. M. Night Shymalan has not continued to be the darling that the Hollywood dynasty wanted. Instead, he's paved his own path, which sometimes means "chose to produce movies that don't pander to the masses." Certainly his movies have paved their own path, but I believe that for the most part, he has remained true to himself...until now.

The Happening suffers from numerous ailments, which, in their totality, are nearly as severe as the epidemic portrayed in the film. Let's start with the title, which my wife has changed to "Scary Wind" in her references. The Happening seems more akin to a scene gone bad on a live show (ala Man on the Moon) than a widespread neurotoxic epidemic (then again, perhaps this is a film gone bad).

The characters are uninspiring. While Mark Wahlberg seems to rise above the fray to an extent, Zooey Deschanel and Ashlyn Sanchez seem wholly disconnected from the film and tend to act in ways that one would never expect given the circumstances.

The plot of the film, which centers around a toxin that is used as a weapon by the bushes and trees around us, targeting humans specifically, is an interesting premise, but that is where it ends. The remainder of the film is a collection of running, screaming, and a spattering of gruesome death scenes necessary to claim the movie's "R" rating.

The "R" rating itself is a point of contention as well. It's obvious why the film qualified under this category, but what is truly disturbing is why the writer/director/producer chose this route. Clearly, the movie could have been done without such explicit scenes without loss of continuity and with some creativity, loss of impact. However, that drives us to the heart of the issue. The movie fails to be clever on any level and instead bashes you over the head with disturbing scenes of senseless death and suicide simply for the shock value.

I sincerely hope that this movie will be the exception and not the rule with regards to M. Night Shymalan's endeavors. His ability to tell a story and the way he tells it can be interesting given the right conditions. In order to flourish, however, he will have to surrender his film dictator role and start collaborating with other creative talent.

On the $10 movie scale, I give this film $1.75, but only if you like adding disturbing death scenes to your memory banks.

Other news:

It is not my intention to do all movie reviews all the time on Wednesdays. It just happens that we're starting out this way. I'll try to avoid another movie review next week, although I am not ruling out a "review" of some sort.

When Good, Fast, and Cheap isn't good enough

2008-06-16T07:00:00.004-04:00

You might get the impression, that, based on this and my previous post, I dislike my workplace. This is not true. I am fully committed to helping them provide the best product possible, but at times, there are decisions (or lack thereof) which cause me such angst, that I simply need to find a suitable place to shout into the wind. Which brings us to blogs on the internet, making anyone a publisher on nearly equal footing with huge, venerable organizations who have been the traditional custodians of publishing. Ah, I digress....

Perhaps you have heard of the developers triangle. This simple illustration is frequently a source of high dispute between developers and managers. In short, it says that out of the 3 attributes: good, fast, and cheap, it is possible to attain 2 of the 3, but not all 3. The illustration tends to lend itself to other similar areas as well, including off-the-shelf software.

The example that tortures me the most at my workplace is Visual SourceSafe 6.0 Why, Why, WHY???

There are many excellent alternatives and replacements for VSS6, I cannot understand why we would keep it around...even after it crashed so badly that we had to restore from disk.

Sent: Friday, May 30, 2008 2:54 PM
To: Lots of IT type people
Subject: RE: SourceSafe

It looks like we are going to need to revert to last night's backup to fix the issue we are experiencing. Please let me know if you have created any new solutions/projects or checked out/in any files and we can work on preserving those changes before restoring from backup.

Fortunately, my team was unaffected by this outage, because a year ago, I made the decision to begin storing our software (which is primarily comprised of binaries from our vendor) to Subversion for two reasons.

1) The work that our group was doing had very little commonality with the main development team
2) I knew the issues and problems with SourceSafe.

To me, this is a sad situation. An excellent FREE alternative with superb documentation was available to us, yet management has refused to migrate. This brings me back to my first point. Subversion is an amazing example of an exception to the developers triangle. By all rights, it qualifies as good, fast, and cheap.

Good: I'm not sure if I can truly qualify anything as good or bad, but to prove the "goodness" of SourceSafe, I direct you to Jeff Atwood's post (referenced above) and the chart therein. Based on its popularity, I would surmise that there is a strong consensus that Subversion is a good product and that it is "better" than it's competitors.

Fast: Very little hard data exists to support or dispute whether SVN is faster or slower than other SCMs. SVN was created as an alternative to CVS and one of the goals was to make certain operations much cheaper like copies and thus much faster. However, on their website, Perforce presents a paper showing that it beats SVN in comparative benchmarks. Considering the source, there might be some bias in testing.

Cheap: By very definition of being open source, it is as cheap as it can be... which is free. Even better than that, it has excellent add ons (also free) and extensive documentation in book form (also free, online).

One of the criticisms of Subversion that I hear is the lack of integration with the .NET IDE. This can be overcome somewhat with the free ankhSVN tool or the not-so-free VisualSVN.

However, the argument has been made, and after personal evaluation, I agree that direct integration with the IDE is not necessarily a good thing (see "Tradeoffs and Problems"). I personally have found that taking the time to write a proper check-in and/or checkout script is well worth it. Not only do you have the direct confirmation from the SCM that your command completed successfully, but you also have the opportunity to combine other tasks into the process as well, including templated comments, unit testing, build integration, notifications and pretty much anything else you can dream up. It also prevents you from checking in bad builds, since most developers I know of who use integrated SCM in the IDE use "check in" interchangably with the "save" button, which, in my opinion, is a flawed philosophy.

The other argument I commonly hear relates to the extremely high mistrust that some people harbor against open source software along with the misconceptions that they hold. First, open source doesn't mean "do it yourself." No one is selling you a "how to" kit and wishing you good luck. Many open source projects strive to act and feel the same or better than their commercial competitors. They do not ask the user to ever look or think about the code behind the application. It's all about the user experience, plain and simple.

Secondly, they express great paranoia that open source means zero support, zero help, and a general sense of abandonment ([sarcasm]because VSS is so thoroughly supported[end sarcasm]). Nothing could be further from the truth. First, in terms of support for Subversion alone, simply do a Google search for Subversion commerical support and you will find this a laughable point. With regards to it being "abandonware," I disagree wholeheartedly.

Perhaps someday, after a particularly devastating crash, a change might be considered. Until then, I can only suggest that you back up often, create your own SVN repository, and perhaps, write your own check in script :-)

They need help too....

2008-06-13T07:00:00.002-04:00

On my way to the grocery store this evening, I heard the promo for tomorrow's Hallerin Hilton Hill show referencing Rick Warren's Fathers Day. Rick Warren is the author of The Purpose Driven Life and founder of the Saddleback (Mega) Church in California. Being a new father, and having recently started this blog, I skipped ahead to learn what the fuss was about.

It turns out that Rick Warren is inviting a group of gay fathers to Saddleback Church to spend Fathers Day... which, of course, makes it excellent fodder for a morning radio talk show in the Bible Belt.

Clearly, Triple-H is looking for some people to get up in arms over this event, and I am certain that the "thumpers" will come out of the woodwork. However, I would like to counter those who will be upset upon hearing this.

First, let's start with the fact that we need more active, involved, positive role model fathers in this country. Studies have shown repeatedly that a strong, positive male influence in the life of both boys and girls speaks very strongly in the statistical sense in areas such as avoiding drug use, work ethic, and especially in future relationships and marriage.

Secondly, for those who have an issue with the "gay" part of gay fathers, I offer you two rebuttals. First, if you don't like it, stay away. This is pretty easy to do. No one is forcing you to be a member of the Saddleback Church or making you listen to Rick Warren. Secondly, ask yourself if their sexual orientation is any more egregious a sin than being an unapologetic drunk, stoned or violent father... since I am certain that members of those groups will be celebrating Fathers Day and no one is going to be up in arms the way they are about this. In fact, I would estimate that holding an event for them would be a much better turn out, if only for the fact that people would say things like "look, they're getting the help they need."

As for myself, I am going to enjoy my first Fathers Day as a new dad and am hoping to avoid my quota of ties, socks and underwear. I actually was able to order my Fathers Day gift a couple weeks ago, but due to a comedy of errors, I still don't have it. However, that whole chestnut is worth at least two posts (one for the story, and one for the review of the item I got once I've had time to play with it).

Happy Fathers Day everyone!

Movie Review: "There Will Be Blood" (2007)

2008-06-11T09:00:00.001-04:00

Before I start review, I would like to introduce you to the one, quantitative way that I evaluate movies. Most common on the movie review landscape, you'll see thumbs, stars and even the occasional tomato. I, however, evaluate with the most advanced and hard hitting system ever invented.

I call it, The $10 movie scale.

The $10 Movie scale is not simply an "out of 10" rating system like so many others. It instead evaluates the actual worthiness and watchability of any given film. It's quite simple, yet devastatingly effective. Simply put, I rate movies on how much I would pay to see them had I not already seen it. This not only helps you gain a quick summary of my review, but it also immediately aids you in telling you where and when you should watch it. You can adjust the scale to your locale, but here's a basic rundown of the implications of any given rating.

$10 (or $10+)- evening, first run theater, might even buy the movie when it comes out
$8.50 - evening first run, but understand that you get what you paid for.
$6 - Good value as a matinee
$5 - Movie rental
$1.50 - Budget theatre
$0 or negative values - literally, you would have to pay me to watch it.

In the interest of full disclosure, I did not invent the $10 movie scale, a couple of my co-workers did. I also suppose that it's possible that someone else uses this same system as well, but so far, I haven't met those people.

And now, it's review time!

There Will Be Blood (2007) - $1.50

In my observation, the Academy Awards tends to highlight two types of films. Popular films and crap.. err, "art" films. "There Will Be Blood" seems to fall into the latter of these categories. While it isn't nearly as awful as say "The Fountain" (#1 on my list of films I hate), it seems that it could be compressed from its nearly 3 hour run time to 30 minutes by removing all scenes that don't have any dialog without any major loss of content.

Men, perhaps you have seen this movie. I understand your dismay. Daniel Day-Lewis should have saved you from your loss of manhood during this film, but sadly, he fails to be a hero, a villain, or some likable or even understandable character from any point of view.

The true failing of this movie is that it is not a compelling story in any way. There is no "but then..." moment in the synopsis. I think this movie received its critical acclaim based more on its source material (Upton Sinclair's Oil!) than on its actual merits as a compelling reel of celluloid.

If the movie does have any redeeming quality to it, it would be that I now feel (very slightly) more in tune with pop culture references on SNL.

Work Vent #1 - Self inflicted wounds

2008-06-09T10:00:00.000-04:00

Almost daily, I receive e-mails at work that look like the one below:

To: Everyone
Subject: C***** I***** check

I'm looking for a check from C***** I***** in the amount of $1,681.00. It was mailed to the Support Center last week. Please let me know if you've received it.

Thanks for your help.

L***** *******

In truth, these e-mails really shouldn't bother me as much as they do, but they do. Big checks, small checks, checks from companies, individuals, municipalities, state agencies, vendors, customers. Why must the mismanagement of payment instruments clog everyones' inbox every day?

I do realize that there's a legitimate reason for these annoying e-questions. I am certain that certain doom will occur if we do not properly locate a check for $274.12 from Billy Bob's Fine Dining and Slaughterhouse Emporium, but why should I have to hear about it?

"Filtering should be the answer," I thought. "All I have to do is find e-mails with 'check received' or 'checks' or something like that."

Fat chance.

I was simultaneously bemused and flustered as the e-mail assault continued. How many ways can you misspell or abbreviate the word "check" (or variations thereof)? For that matter, why are you abbreviating a five letter word in an e-mail!??!

Time to implement plan B - if you can't beat 'em, help 'em. I have suggested on numerous occasions to several people both directly in the chain and those outside in the chain who had the ability to intercede that they simply create a distribution list for check senders and receivers. This has fallen on deaf ears.

So, here I sit, and, oh, by the way, if you have received a check from Perry Partners in the amount of $4,249.21 referencing invoice #1755, KEEP IT TO YOURSELF.

The first post

2008-06-08T01:48:00.000-04:00

This is, of course, the obligatory first post on this blog. Pay very little attention to it. This post suffers from the same malady that affects anyone who's tried to write a term paper or essay from beginning to end. If you write the beginning first, it's always very awkward. Based on my experience, it's better to start in the middle, put some hideously bad sentences at the beginning, and rewrite it later to fit what was written later. So, if someday, this post is magically different, you'll know what happened and can go over to the Internet Way Back Machine and bring this awkward post back to life.

Now, on to the good stuff.

The purpose of this blog is to highlight the areas I care about.

I have been married for nearly 5 years, and am a new parent and father to a wonderful 4 month old. (home)
I am a an application developer/system administrator for a major retailer and handle their electronic payment systems. (work)
I am a citizen of Knox County, resident of Tennessee, and citizen of the United States....and I sometimes have an opinion to share on issues that affect us all. (community)

I hope to make this a 3-in-1 blog and use labels to separate the areas (and thus, you, as the reader, can separate the posts in kind).

There may be more areas, but this is a good start. Ok now... awkward post over!!!