Movies in Cinetopia

In Vancouver Washington there is a new movie theatre called Cinetopia. Right off of I-205 and Mill Plain at 11700 SE 7th Street, Vancouver, WA, 98683 (360)2132800 , it is an upscale place that has waiters, a dinner area, all built into the building. Ticket prices are a bit higher ($1.50 over normal $8.50) , but then the chairs are wide, very few people at a time watching so it actually does make it more relaxing to watch a movie.

Even have foot rests so you can kick back and put your feet up as you watch.

Overall, worth the extra $1.50 to go there a person.

War Poems - Modern Version

I get all sorts of e-mails from around the world due to my web site. One I got from Raymond Lifchez was looking for more info on the US deaths from the current war in Iraq. He is frmo U of Berkley. They are putting on a war demonstartion (for lack of a better descriotiion) at "3pm, Sunday, November 20, at the Morrison Library, UCB we will hold "Poems Against War: A Second Reading". The first reading was March 13 and was v. well attended--200 people--25 faculty, staff, students, and local poet-luminaries read. A reception followed. I put it together out of dismay--that since the Pres. election, there is no activity at Berkeley. A strange quite, for this place--Perhaps you will come down for it.SincerelyRay"

Thought I will not attend I did write back to him.

Hi,

Though fairly close by, only 12 hour easy drive one way, I doubt if we can make it out of Oregon till next June.

Are you going to webcast it?

Would be interesting to watch it that way.

Personally, I think the war was / is good in getting rid of Saddam Hussein and sending a big visible message (Afghanistan just too remote, ask the British who were there for 150 years), but President Bush is / has lousy military / political people in charge. Not one every studied history - even 1990s era - let alone WW II on how to win on the battlefield and THEN ensure that there are troops in every town to garrison, control, organize and rebuild immediately afterwards. Not even enough troops to guard supply lines. Basic middle ages tactics.

We did that throughout WW II from North Africa to Germany.

I've tramped though enough of Europe, US military and civilian cemeteries (plus talked to a whole lot who served) to know what a cost it is, but sometimes you still have to do what is unpopular but right. This administration is very bad at articulating (almost as bad a Jimmy Carter who initially started the build-up of military that Reagan got all the credit for) the political reasons (not the WMD garbage, that is just spin doctors) that Hussein thumbed his nose at the UN mandates and ignored them. Much like what Hitler did in Czech in 38 with Munich accords and the World did nothing after he went in there. This time, Bush made a stand but used false reasons (more understandable to the mass public who cannot see issues of ignoring UN resolutions and laws that can be ignored at will to go to war) to sell the war.

Only law abiding people obey laws. If there is no consequence to ignoring them, people - and nations - will. Hitler paved the way from 1935 to 1939 in showing how to get away with breaking the treaties, till he went too far so we got WW II.

If We had done nothing after Kuwait, then China would go for Taiwan since it would show we were not willing to shed our blood for anyone. And every nation who wants to annex a neighbor would also - no consequence for doing so.
yes, the domino theory, but it also works. That is why there is the USA - one state being controlled by the continentals and militia allowed the neighbor states to join in also till the whole place was controlled by the "rebels."
Sincerely,

Tom

Disaster Planning vs Doing

After the recent hurricanes is seems certain that planning to the Nth degree and getting all their policies and procedures written down is about all the individual States, cities and FEMA (well, for FEMA that is their main mission - they just coordinate so really do not DO anything) are good for.

They put all the tractor trailer rigs into a park then let them sit for two days while trying to figure out WHERE to send them: Geesh, look on a map, find the cities, and send them there.I heard that they stated that trucks could not find the right places to go to - these are PROFESSIONAL truckers who can navigate around the whole US and find a building in a warehouse park and they expect people to belive that a trucker could not find a CITY?

Another excuse was that they could not get to the cities due to roads being blocked.

Solution: 1 tanker truck with gas, 1 tanker truck with diesel fuel. 1 tow truck, two national guard 2 1/2 ton trucks with water and MRE supplies and a squad of people, 1 command vehicle with GPS - and paper maps - 1 officer, two NCOs and say GO TO THIS TOWN. As they drive, if they find anything blocking the road, they have troops, a tow truck to pull or push things off the road, till they get to their destination.

Send them out as soon as the winds wind down to 60 MPH or so (no more falling trees by then) or six hours before the first truck is to roll out of the staging area. Have 20 teams and let them go. Hub and spoke out of the largest cities to the smallest along the main roads. In two days everything is clear and the supplies are right behind them now.

This is basic logistics supply stuff they taught back during the US CIVIL WAR. The South of all places should know how this works - they were on the receiving end of it for 4 years.

Food Store Coupons at Checkout

I find it very interesting - and very stupid - that food stores print promotional coupons at checkout time to give to the consumer for items they just bought! Buy a half gallon of ice cream and when you pay they give you a coupon that will expire before you eat up what you just bought and for a different brand. If you had wanted that brand you would have gotten it. Plus having the coupon expire in a few days means you will never use it even if you wanted that brand they are promoting. Marketing again - along with a stupid implementation of a good idea. Fred Meyer­® (Pacific NW based company) does this all the time.

Geesh, at least give us a coupon for the brand we just bought and have it last for a month from the time we bought the last one.

 

 

Quarters for New Orleans?

In order to help rebuild New Orleans every person in the US should collect all their LA State commemorative quarters (minted in 2002) they come across and send them to the city to help get their economy back afloat.

Wait, that won't work, they've already proved that New Orleans can't float!

Scott Adams Now Blogs Too

Scott just started up his own blot at

http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/

(well it really is a blog, but I think being "Dilbert" it is more attuned to being a blot).

He announced it in his DNRC newsletter.

 

DMCA Comment Period on Changes to the Law

Exemption to Prohibition on Circumvention of Copyright Protection Systems for Access Control Technologies was published in the Federal Register http://www.copyright.gov/fedreg/2005/70fr57526.html for comments on proposed changes to the law.

 

The Copyright Office is requesting from the public reasons that exemptions should be granted for people to circumvent the digital protection placed on items in regards to fair use. Due to the wording of the law that states " “No person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title.” "

 

That effectively means that if someone puts ANY protection method - even if a password that is one character long - and a person figures out the password and accesses it and makes a copy for a backup without authorization - you could be jailed for breaking the DMCA law.

American Indian Heritage

Senator John McCain is in Portland Oregon (at Portland State University) stating that he is against Indians building casinos off reservation land in urban areas. He heads a committee that oversee Indian affairs.

 

In a quote he stated that it is not good for an urban city that they build a casino near it.

 

Of course, if your tribe happens to be Trump, Marriott, or Caesars then there is no problem with those tribes building one next to an urban area. Then it is good for the city.

 

I think a tribe should try and build a casino in Las Vegas, Reno, Biloxi, or Atlantic city and wait for their permit to be denied then sue for being discriminated against since they are Indians (Native Americans if you want to be politically correct).

 

Pretty simple:

"Our Tribe wants a permit to build a new casino."

"You want to build a casino on land zoned for casino use at Biloxi?"

"Yes."

"You're an Indian Tribe. Denied."

"Mr. Trump your company wants to build a new casino in Biloxi? Approved."

 

Yep, discrimination does not exist in the USA.

 

Oh, BTW, last month has Indian Heritage Month in the USA.

Why Government Should not Contract Out

Long ago I wrote up a page on my site as to why the Businesses and Government should not contract out on a routine basis http://www.taphilo.com/tom/contracting-out.shtml. An AP news article on Monday the 24th of October 2005 talked about the small businesses that are getting the dregs from the cleanup / rebuilding barrel of Hurricane Katrina.

 

One reason stated was that a company who had a contract objected to having their per-yard fee being public since it was a business secret. That is true enough. It could hurt them if it was known what they are being paid per yard to haul away debris. Their competitors could underbid and take away business (and profit! Duh!).

 

This, however, points up that the least cost provider will NEVER be known to the public since any company can throw any feature / cost / item into a business secret category and have it not be public - so it cannot ever be compared.

 

The laws should be changed that if services are contracted for on a routine basis - and every year there is hurricane clean-up so it is an ongoing forever thing - they should be Government paid employees and thus get Congressional and people oversight.

 

The argument that President Bush (and others) has put forth that only "inherently governmental" services remain in Federal Workforce is garbage - if the government is the only one providing or paying for the service then IT IS GOVERNMENTAL and should not be contracted out.

 

If "free enterprise" was truly willing to provide the service directly to people (or state / local) without going through the Federal Government they would have. Since the Federal Government is the one contracting for it by definition that means it is "inherently Governmental" and should not be contracted out.

 

 

Google Book Scanning and Copyright

Kelly v. Arriba Soft  is the decision in which the 9th Circuit Court ruled that a search engine did not violate copyright by displaying thumbnail images of photos from a photographer's Web site.  The decision included that Google did not profit from displaying the thumbnail image. But with Adsense® and other pay for click methods used to profit from search that may change since they now do.

 

Google Scanning books in a LIBRARY that then is searchable is like having a thousand thumbnails of a book. By extension of the above rule that is permissible. Google caches my thousands of photos that I have and does not directly profit from them - indirectly it does. Course Google caching my images does profit me since people can see the images and purchase them from me.

 

The book publishers are upset since an outside company is "doing to them" what they have been "doing to others" for years - taking advantage of market conditions to profit from other people's work.

 

These same companies have NEVER offered to provide a searchable non-printable non-savable copy of the books for people to find snippets of info - or even to find the book. Someone else comes along and does it and they cry "foul!" and demand that this new firm not be allowed to do it - yet they offer no alternative.

 

e-books don't count - they are functionally useless and is just an attempt to get people to buy and then repeatedly lose the same book over and over again.

 

The opt-out bit that Google says that the publishers must tell them no index their books I find to be poetic justice. This is no different than all the "consumer" protection that US Congress and other nations have stated: Each user must "opt-out" of getting something. Google is just following the US Congressional precedents of law that forces consumers to opt-out - and companies are legal entities like a person so this method should apply to them too! And when it does they THEN complain. But if they make a business rule that consumers must opt-out they see no problem.

 

What is good for the Goose is good for the gander.

 

 

 

 

Gun Ban Vote In Brazil

Saw in the Sunday Oregonian newspaper that a national vote on banning gun sales occurs in Brazil this week. Anti-Gun people are using the same arguments that they have used in the US, UK, Australia that taking away guns from law abiding citizens makes the world - and their little corner of it - safer. In the USA the courts have determined that the police are there to enforce the law, not necessarily there to protect you from crime. If by being there they stop it great, but they are not obligated to protect an individual from harm if they do not have the people to do so. After all, a restraining order on paper that a woman puts in front of her assailant will stop that person instantly and they will leave after they had broken into her house to harm her. Isn't that the same piece of paper Chancellor Adolf Hitler of Germany gave to Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain of the United Kingdom in Munich that prevented World War II?

Supplies, Tonnage, and what gets there

During the 20th Century logistics people for the military (all sides) always talk about tonnage of supplies needed to get to a unit (usually a division) on a daily, weekly, monthly basis but I have never seen any study on the relationship of shipped tonnage to actual effective supplies that got delivered.  How much packing material weight is there compared to shells? One reason the modern US military went to 5.56 (.223 cal) M16s was that smaller rounds equated to more carried per person.  Of course they waste more rounds due to auto setting (now fixed 3 round bursts in the M16-A2 model from what I have read). 1000 rounds of WW II ammo rifle type ammo weights around 70 lbs in the shipping crate, I would expect the 5.56 mm to come in with 2000 rounds at the same weight.  An American division could go through 45,000 rifle rounds in a days combat - a ton of rifle ammo. However, say seeing a statement that a WWII division needs 50 tons of supplies a day does show you how many trucks are needed to move it to them (20 2.5 ton trucks), but not what really is being used. fuel weights around 6 1/2 lbs a gallon so using up 3000 gallons of fuel a day would be ~19500 lbs = 9.75 tons of supplies just for fuel. Leaving 10.25 tons for everything else. The only way to figure this out is look at the original supply documents per day and find original weights of items shipped in the crate and the weight of each item just before use to see what the percentage of packing really was.

C.R.U.D

At the Microsoft Security seminar that I went to this past Tuesday in Redmond I re-discovered a valuable word: CRUD. The acronym stands for: Change Remove Update Delete (CRUD).

 

Used in reference to what you do are doing within a database and how to think about what you are doing with that DB when writing applications that access it to help write secure code.

 

Like GIGO (Garbage In Garbage Out) that I learned about in my first computer class in 1977 it deals more with validating everything and trusting nothing before using it. It comes down to 4 times as much code needing to be written to validate a field, and react to errors as it does to get the field and do the work you want on it.

And then people wonder why it takes so long to write a program now-a-days. 

 

It takes twice as long to document properly a program as it does to write it.

Non-Profit = No Shareholders

Listening to KPOJ  http://www.620kpoj.com this morning on the way in ("Left side of the dial") they were talking about non-profit hospitals. Many people do not fully understand that legal non-profits DO and CAN make money - non-profit in this case means that they do not DISTRIBUTE profits to shareholders. The Oregonian had an article in it this past week about some CEOs of non-profits making $600,000+ a year in salaries. Non-Profit status does not mean the people running it cannot make a lot of money either.

Web and Human Design Mistakes

Jacob Nielson's UseIT site put out an article on WebBlogs usability http://www.useit.com/alertbox/weblogs.html as well as Top Ten Design mistakes for the Web.

 

Contrast this with the Stella Awards http://www.stellaawards.com/stella.html and I wonder which design mistakes are more important?

 

favions.ico

While looking at the http://www.8thafhsoregon.com web log I saw a robot called http://iconsurf.com/ come through. The site, by Peter Andrews, indexes and displays ico files from web sites it finds.

oregon measure 37

A single judge came down and stated that treating two land owners differently based on when they purchased their land as to what they can do with it is against the Oregon State Constitution. However, treating a corporation - a legal entitiy that is treated as an undying person - they allow different tax laws, legal limations (and greater freedom) than a person. A business can deduct insurance presiums always yet an individual cannot - are they not being treated differently? If this judgement holds then lawyers should also sue for equal treatment of individuals in terms of tax savings / legal avoidance just like all the companies that pay the minimu $10 income tax a year - every person should have the same tax rules for THEM as a corporation has - after all they are both equal right?

Fuel Prices - no news

Noticed that on the way home a 76 station had regular gas for $2.53 in Portland Oregon. No news story about it anywhere. Prices dropped 50 cents a gallon in less than 6 weeks - and it is not news. Unlike when was going up. Good news seldom makes it into print.