Reinke Faces Life

http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north579.html

What To Learn From Maytag
by Gary North

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They did not perceive that the Web would allow bad news to circulate by word of mouse.

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Cute phrase that absolutely captures the meme. The web acts like Paul Revere. Ignore that at your own peril.

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http://www.lewrockwell.com/rockwell/land-socialism.html

Land Socialism: Playing With Fire
by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

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Next we turn to the government’s glorious fire fighting units. As with all government bureaucracies, they resist new technology. They don’t plan for and assess risks. They run around spraying water and chemicals on everything regardless of effectiveness or cost. But meanwhile, they crowd out private fire control efforts. They tell us to flee and then put an antique government bureaucracy in charge and expect us to be happy about it. Finally, when the disaster ends, the federal government dumps billions in aid as a way of placating us. This is an insane approach, or, rather, it is only a sane approach if the goal is to see civilization wiped out and meanwhile expand the state.

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Over, and above, the arguments about “liberty”, I do find some credence in the author’s kvetch about the fire fighting technology.

One would think that that there would be some significant progress in that area.

We know that the gooferment can’t do anything right and that if you throw enough money at something, something will happen.

So cost-effectiveness and technology advances require privitization.

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http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Should-ISPs-Forward-Email-When-You-Move-88755

Should ISPs Forward E-mail When You Move?
Miffed AOL user urges FCC to regulate e-mail…
02:21PM Wednesday Oct 24 2007 by Karl

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The post office will forward your mail to your new address when you move, and wireless phone carriers are required to port your number to your next provider. So should ISPs be forced to forward your mail to your new ISP? The FCC is exploring the requirement after an AOL customer claims she lost important business revenue when AOL canceled her account due to miscommunication.

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[Disclaimer: I work for an ISP, but not in any capacity other than a technology worker!]

In a word, NO!

I have been on record for a while that you, as an individual, should never be dependent upon anyone’s email address. Not your ISP. Not your boss. Not AOL! Not Yahoo!

Here’s the URL of one of my many pontifications on the subject: http://tinyurl.com/yq5kto

Now, for example, my Web Service Provider 1and1 http://www.1and1.com/?k_id=9113251 offers a package for $48/year that give you NOT ONLY your own domain with lots of web space, but a slew of email addresses.

The forwarding complaint is groundless. It’s completely unnecessary imho.

Even if you want to change your own domain between service providers, then you can just move where YOUR domain name points. There never should be an email interruption.

The belt ‘n’ suspenders crowd can combine that with many of the free redirectors. If you are really paranoid, you’ll never be out due to a name problem, you can redirect thru gmail (i.e., redirector to a gmail account to your domain) and you can be super assured. Then you can worry about a DNS or a GMail failure.

So, getting the gooferment to levy an obsolete requirement on all ISPs is surely a waste of everyone’s time, money, and attention.

That leaves aside the question of why she was running a business on a retail email account. I’m sure AOL’s TOS covered themselves.

Leave the gooferment to mess up the postal mail. It’s such an exemplar of effectiveness and efficiency!

[Disclaimer: Comcast probably has other opinions and certainly doesn’t need my help on this topic!]

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http://mossblog.allthingsd.com/20071021/free-my-phone

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The Soviet Ministry Model

That’s why I refer to the big cellphone carriers as the “Soviet ministries.” Like the old bureaucracies of communism, they sit athwart the market, breaking the link between the producers of goods and services and the people who use them.

To some extent, they try to replace the market system, and, like the real Soviet ministries, they are a lousy substitute. They decide what phones can be used on their networks and what software and services can be offered on those phones. They require the hardware and software makers to tailor their products to meet the carriers’ specifications, not just so they work properly on the network, but so they promote the carriers’ brands and their various add-on services.

Let me be clear: Any company that spends billions to build and maintain a wireless network deserves to be paid for its use, and deserves to make a profit and a return for its shareholders. Not only that, but companies like Verizon Wireless or AT&T Inc. should be free to build or sell phones or software or services.
The Soviet Ministry Model

That’s why I refer to the big cellphone carriers as the “Soviet ministries.” Like the old bureaucracies of communism, they sit athwart the market, breaking the link between the producers of goods and services and the people who use them.

To some extent, they try to replace the market system, and, like the real Soviet ministries, they are a lousy substitute. They decide what phones can be used on their networks and what software and services can be offered on those phones. They require the hardware and software makers to tailor their products to meet the carriers’ specifications, not just so they work properly on the network, but so they promote the carriers’ brands and their various add-on services.

Let me be clear: Any company that spends billions to build and maintain a wireless network deserves to be paid for its use, and deserves to make a profit and a return for its shareholders. Not only that, but companies like Verizon Wireless or AT&T Inc. should be free to build or sell phones or software or services.

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Perhaps, one should realize that the “regulators” are in bed with the “regulated”. The gooferment is in business to (1) feather its own nest; (2) rewards its “friends”; and (3) punish its “enemies”. Our needs and expectations are not even on their radar. If you think it is a “kinder gentler” form of fascism, then I won’t disagree. The FCC, and the “competing” cell phone companies is a sweet cartel. It’s time for the peasants to get out the pitchfork and torches and administer a little “rough justice”.

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FROM AN EMAIL I SENT TO LINKEDIN_BLOGGERS

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Hmm, another web idea “Judge Judy on the inet”! Some one “empanels” a jury, presents their case, the jury renders it’s verdict, and publishes it to the internet. Hmmm! Get ripped off by a big company, get a “moral judgment”, and a grazillion of your closest friends on the inet “help” the company understand its mistake. Sort of like Larry Elder’s Moral Court. (Yeah, I know I watch too much tv. Hey, I liked his book.) Maybe I could be the next ralph nader? I liked my wife’s old corvair. It was kool. I’ll have to start looking at domain names. Or, has it already been done?

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FROM INPUT TO A STRATEGIC TECHNOLOGY PLANNING PROCESS

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I suggest that the strategic plan needs to adapt to some “new” trends:

(1) Zero footprint platforms. Non PCs. Strange forms like PS2, WII, pda, cell phone, kiosk. type technologies.

(2) Low cost storage. Amazon S3 offering might make sense in some scenarios.

(3) The trend towards mashable content impacts direction.

(4) Low cost high speed access; new technologies like wimax could change use and volume.

(5) Nearly ubiquitous access sets expectations in connectivity and service levels.

(6) Vista, linux, and mac may all present unique opportunities.

(7) RIAA has court success; in loco parentis, may get us in the deep end.

(8) Porn and gambling continue to abound; challenge to the … …

(9) Facebook as digital dirt needs to be brought to everyone’s attention.

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________________________________

From: Reinke’s R&D Techie Nerd Persona []
Sent: Sunday, October 14, 2007 2:24 PM
To: Editor
Subject: RE: Carry a flash drive instead of a laptop [Newsletter Comp Version]
Importance: Low

Well, hotel’s don’t necessarily give you access to the USB port. (I was
in vegas without my power cord but with my usb. And, was basically
screwed. See
https://reinkefaceslife.com/2007/09/23/rant-does-dell-suck-really-suck-or
-extremely-really-suck/ and my saga!) I think that the answer is g.ho.st
or a similar web os. fjohn

________________________________

From: Windows Secrets
Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2007 5:50 AM
Subject: Carry a flash drive instead of a laptop [Newsletter Comp
Version]Carry a flash drive instead of a laptop
By Scott Dunn

You can avoid lugging a laptop everywhere by installing your favorite
apps on a USB flash drive and running them on any computer you want.

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DUH!

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http://www.techmeme.com/071006/p16#a071006p16

TECHMEME points out an interesting article
Securing Very Important Data: Your Own (Denise Caruso/New York Times)
Source: New York Times
Author: Denise Caruso
Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/07/technology/07frame…

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Securing Very Important Data: Your Own — AS long as we are willing to relinquish some personal data, Web applications have long allowed us to create virtual identities that can conduct most of the social and financial transactions that typify life in the real world.

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ONE way to change this, he said, is to make people more like organizations.

To this end, Mr. Neuenschwander and his colleagues have floated the intriguing concept of the L.L.P.: the Limited Liability Persona. This persona would be a legally recognized virtual person in which users could “invest” the financial or identity resources of their choosing.

Once their individual personas are created, consumers would be able to use them as their legal “alter ego,” even in financial transactions. “My L.L.P. would have its own mailing address, its own tax ID number, and that’s the information I’d give when I’m online,” Mr. Neuenschwander said. Other benefits include the ability for “personas” to limit their financial exposure in ways that individuals cannot.

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This is a most interesting concept.

The tin foil hat crowd always talks about the gooferment and all upper case names. So perhaps, a great gift for a child would be an LLP and their own name as a domain name (e.g., JOHNQPUBLIC dot something ink?).

Hmmm, certainly something to consider.

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070928/ts_afp/irelandsmokingpubsmusicoffbeat_070928145420

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Interesting…they should try it in Vegas!

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Vegas has the smoking Nazis already.

It’s not complete, but it’s getting there.

It is the INITIATION OF FORCE. They are using gooferment to inflict their values on us. It’s OK because you agree with this one. What if it is one of your vices? Like golf? It very wasteful of time, energy, and attention citizen. Further, people get hurt at golf and miss work and can’t maximize their tax payments to the state. And, think of the ecology. What about all the poor animals displaced for your “golf course”. That money and land could have been given to the “poor”.

How does that fit for size? Little tight.

If some one can use gooferment to force YOU or ME or ANYONE to do ONE thing, then we are slaves and they can makes us do anything. Citizen, it unhealthy for you to go to Church, wear clothes, eat at mickeyd’s.

Look it from a freedom side. Does anyone FORCE those musicians to take their equipment to the smoke filled pubs? No, they can say “I only play at smoke free venues”. But, then they have to bear the COSTS of that action. And, who owns the pubs. Obviously, the gooferment since they call the shots. Is anyone forced to patronize the pubs? Yes, the gooferment “regulates” them.

Without the gooferment, there’s be MORE CHOICES. The marketplace would create smoke free Irish pubs.

See in a free market, no one is compelled to do squat. Everyone would get to make choices. When you spend your certificates of appreciation give by your fellow workers for something you’ve done that they like, then it’s like having a mini election. AND, everyone is allowed to decide. Sort of like democracy without the force of mob rule.

See no one can be “wealthy” without serving their fellow man. The free market is essentially a coordination mechanism that allows us to cooperate. Socialism is enforced slavery; free markets are a very complex calculus that allows everyone to be satisfied with what’s available to the maximum extent possible.

Socialism’s mantra “from each, according to ability; to each, according to need. The Free Markets mantra is “serve your fellow man and be rewarded to the extent of your contribution”.

See first, you have to dig the well, and then you get to drink. Catch 10 fish and the market can equate that to 2 loaves of bread. If you catch 10 fish and I catch 5, you get two loaves and I get a lesson in motivation and ability.

It’s a complex mechanism, since if fishing is bad and you only catch 5 and I get 1, then the price of fish will rise. If the baker doesn’t lower his price of bread, he winds up with stale bread. So magically, there will be fish for the baker and bread for us.

It’s when force aka gets involved that the mechanism breaks down.

Argh!

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Once again, this whole nonsense about time zones and daylight savings times aggravated me.

(I got up an hour earlier than I had to for my morning call.)

As a globe, we should all be on GMT.

Who cares if you work 9-5 in eat or 1400-2200 Zulu?

If you talk to someone in another time zone, the conversation has one variable extracted.

And, maybe Microsoft Outlook would work correctly.

Argh!

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FYI, to anyone who is interested or cares, I participated in a conference call from the Denver Tech Center Marriott using SKYPE from my personal NOTEBOOK over the Verizon Wireless Broad Band. And it all worked.

Call was FREE, VWBB ain’t, and quality was acceptable.

So in essence I have turned a very expensive notebook into a free semi-mobile phone.

A sort of large cell phone? A funny phone booth?

Demos available at a modest fee.

Love it when stuff works.

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http://www.networkworld.com/columnists/2007/092607backspin.html?page=2

The industry’s soft underbelly
Backspin By Mark Gibbs, Network World, 09/26/07

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What are the big issues that people outside of the computer business should really pay attention to? More important, if we believe that outsiders should be paying attention, then what will it take to clue them in? So, you tell me: What is the computer industry’s soft underbelly? What should consumers know?

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I think there are several “hot issues”:

1) Computers don’t necessarily make one more productive. The certainly don’t make organizations more efficient. And, the noise level of electronic communication is such that it really prevents concentration, attention, and focus. Computing can effectively conceal process problems.

2) The novice, and most experienced, users have no clue how fragile everything is. Hard disk failure is the easiest understood. Data corruption by — malicious, corrupt, buggy, or poorly designed — software is the hardest to understand and protect against.

3) Similarly, software sucks. It’s rare that it works with 100% reliability. If you could keep it locked in a box, then maybe it would stay uncorrupted, unupdated, unfixed, uncustomized, un-what-evered. Put it in use and stuff happens. And, some of that stuff ain’t good. For example, look at Microsoft SUS updating “silently” regardless of what your settings are.

4) Now let’s talk about costs. You don’t “buy” software. “barbara streisand” You give the vendor your money and that the last you’ll get any attention from them. So you don’t “buy” it, but you pay thru the nose. If you’re an old pro, you use Open Source Software where your upfront cost is zero and you can buy some support as you need it. (A better model imho).

5) Companies want your credit card so they can keep billing that card month after month. Good luck getting them to stop. Plan on changing your number to get rid of them. AND, Intelligent Designer help you if you want a refund!

These vex pros and novices alike. And, no one talks about it. But, these are the 800# gorillas in the room imho.

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Lessons Learned: Putting all your data on a fob is useless without a USB port to plug it into. Seems obvious now.

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