Chaos Magnet

Subversive Cross Stitch

I think I've discovered at least one place I'm going to get my Christmas presents from this year. subversive cross stitch is not work-safe, but I definitely want one.

Cargo cult engineering

Ned Batchelder points out an article on cargo cult engineering. As Richard Feynman described them cargo cults are "a cargo cult of people [in the South Seas]. During the war they saw airplanes with lots of good materials, and they want the same thing to happen now. So they've arranged to make things like runways, to put fires along the sides of the runways, to make a wooden hut for a man to sit in, with two wooden pieces on his head for headphones and bars of bamboo sticking out like antennas — he's the controller — and they wait for the airplanes to land. They're doing everything right. The form is perfect. It looks exactly the way it looked before. But it doesn't work. No airplanes land."

Feynman talks about how this relates to scientific research, in which researchers fail to understand the causes of their results, but in the case of cargo cult engineering, companies mistake a symptom of successful projects (long hours) with the cause (personal commitment of the engineers). Interesting reading.

An interesting use of CSS

In my research about cargo cults (more in a few minutes) I came across an interesting navigational element on the Apologetics Index. The menu stays as a tab on the left and travels when you scroll (though it's a tad distracting to start with) and pops out when you roll over it. My first thought is that it would be an accessibility nightmare, but now I'm thinking that if you did it right, you could make it work for those both with and without scripting support -- if the script doesn't work, the navigation simply appears -- and for those with traditional and non-traditional browsers.

Hm.

Taking Comdex less seriously

It's nice to know that not everybody takes the industry so seriously. Check out James Turner's Comdex rundown.

Oppose the marriage amendment

The Massachusetts State Supreme Court has ruled that it is unconstitutional to deny gay and lesbian couples the obligations and legal protections of marriage just because the person they'd be marrying is of the same gender. They did NOT say that Massachusetts has to issue marriage licenses. A "civil union" type of thing works too.

But some members of congress feel threatened by this, and want to create an amendment to the US Constitution defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman. Can you imagine if fifty years ago they had created an amendment banning marriage between blacks and whites?

Oppose Writing Intolerance into the U.S. Constitution by sending a fax, letter or email through the ACLU. The Constitution should be used to PROTECT freedom, not restrict it.

Why writers hate blogs

I got my first email address and Internet access in 1989, before the web even broke onto the scene, so maybe I'm not a representative example, but apparently many writers hate blogs. Now if I could just get this blog to do something besides giving me an outlet in which I can write what I want, rather than what the client wants...

The 80's lyrics quiz

I'm amazed at how few words it takes to bring a song to mind. I got a 66.25 on the 80's lyrics quiz, but that was after I got docked 30% because I was born between the Twist and Woodstock.

The Bug Count Also Rises

I got a good chuckle this morning from The Bug Count Also Rises, the Imitation Hemingway Contest Winner.

Help me remember

My wife forwarded this truly appropriate prayer to me. As usual, if this is yours and you want it removed, let me know.

Heavenly Father, Help me remember that that the jerk who cut me off in traffic last night, may be a single mother who worked nine hours that day and is rushing home to cook dinner, help with homework, do the laundry and spend a few precious moments with her children.

Help me to remember Lord, that the pierced, tattooed, disinterested young man who can't make change correctly may be a worried 19-year-old college student, balancing his apprehension over final exams with his fear of not getting his student loans for next semester.

Remind me, Lord, that the scary looking bum, begging for money in the same spot every day (who really ought to get a job)! is probably a slave to addictions that we can only imagine in our worst nightmares.

Help me to remember Lord, that the old couple walking annoyingly slow through the store aisles and blocking our shopping progress may be savoring this moment, knowing that, based on the biopsy report one of them got back last week, this will be the last year that they go shopping together.

Heavenly Father, remind us each day that, of all the gifts you've given us, the greatest gift is love. It is not enough to share that love with those we hold dear. Open our hearts not to just those who are close to us, but to all humanity. Let us be slow to judge and quick to forgive, show patience, empathy and love.

Know Domino? Want some work?

I'm in need of somebody who knows both Domino and Java for a writing project with quick turnaround. If you're that person, please email me.

Natural Language Processing

Unfortunately, I still don't have the time to devote to it that I'd like, but all this talk about Chatbots has gotten me thinking about Natural Language Processing. fieldmethods.net is an NLP-oriented portal that seems to have interesting information.

Multiple monitors = more efficient programmers

My first "real" programming job was building kiosks using Macromedia Director. It was also my first experience with having more than one monitor. It spoiled me forever. Now Darrell Norton has some metrics on multiple monitors and productivity. He made sure that all developers on a large project had multiple monitors and found that:

"After multiple monitors were introduced:

* Productivity in lines of code per day increased 10%.
* Defect levels decreased by 26%."

Now where did I stash that extra monitor ...?

Semantic web blues

I commented more extensively on Clay Shirky's The Semantic Web, Syllogism, and Worldview over on InformIT, but I have one more point to question.

Clay's talking about syllogisms, and uses this one as an example of why thy don't work:

"Consider the following assertions:

- Count Dracula is a Vampire
- Count Dracula lives in Transylvania
- Transylvania is a region of Romania
- Vampires are not real

You can draw only one non-clashing conclusion from such a set of assertions -- Romania isn't real."

Excuse me? I think the main problem is that he's mis-understanding the difference between

A are B

and

All A are B

I commented more over at InformIT.

On being late

I swear Charlie must be in my head. Today's treatise is on being late, and I spend a LOT of time somewhere between stages 2 and 3, with the occasional forays all the way to stage 5. (And there are actually a couple of places that qualify as stage 6.) So far I've only missed one plane, but my wife is still convinced that I wrote it ...

Elsewhere ...

Over on my InformIT XML blog, I've noted that XML 1.1 is almost here, and not everybody is happy about it. Elliotte Rusty Harold specifically says "Don't use it."

Also, on a more lighthearted note, I've also noted over at the Vanguard Science Fiction Report that:

• Tarzan's been cancelled, Jake 2.0 has a full season pickup
• Moore defended his Battlestar Galactica decisions
• Star Wars: Episode 3 footage has been seen

The law of the land

Apparently one of my most popular posts is Why DO we pay taxes, anyway? I still haven't been able to answer that question, but in my quest to find out, I found a link to the entirety of the United States Code. If you find it, let me know.

DOM NodeFilters and XML data binding

Now on developerWorks: DOM NodeFilters and XML data binding: Using a DOM NodeFilter lets you control the contents of a set of XML data without touching the base application, but the NodeFilter itself is still a class, and needs to be recompiled in order to make any non-trivial changes. This tutorial explains how to build a system that enables a user to control both the criteria for a report and the structure of that criteria simply by providing XML input, either through a file or through a web service, using XML Data Binding.

Create static jpg files from SVG

Apparently the Batik SVG package from Apache has a built-in rasterizer to convert SVG images to JPGs, so you don't have to rely on the user having an SVG viewer installed. Cool! Benoit Marchal explains how it works.

Grab headlines from a remote RSS file

Now on developerWorks: Grab headlines from a remote RSS file: This article shows you how to retrieve syndicated content and convert it into headlines for your site. Since no official format for such feeds exists, aggregators are often faced with the difficulty of supporting multiple formats, so Nick also explains how to use XSL transformations to more easily deal with multiple syndication file formats. (This was actually published in September.)

The world's best complaint letter

I received this via email and had to save it for posterity. This is reputed to be an actual complaint letter from a customer of British cable company NTL. As always, if you're Robert Stokes and you want me to take it down, let me know.

I've often been this frustrated, but it takes some serious talent to express it this well:

Dear Cretins:

I alleviated the boredom by playing with my testicles for a few minutes -- an activity at which you are no doubt both familiar and highly adept. The rescheduled installation then took place some two weeks later, although the technician did forget to bring a number of vital tools -- such as a
drill-bit and his cerebrum.

Two weeks later, my cable modem had still not arrived. After 15 telephone calls over four weeks my modem arrived, six weeks after I had requested it -- and begun to pay for it. I estimate your internet server's downtime is roughly 35% -- the hours between about 6 pm and midnight, Monday through Friday and most of the weekend. I am still waiting for my telephone connection.

Robert Stokes

Currency converter

OK, it's not particularly fun or interesting, but every once in a while I need a Universal Currency Converter.

Chatbots and AI

I've been meaning to start dabbling in artificial intelligence for a long time, an as-yet-still-covered-by-NDA project notwithstanding. The Mind Files makes me want to dive into the world of chatbots. Very cool, and according to the background, it's accessible to just about anybody. Maybe I will add an AI bot of my own to this site...

Jitte's also got a new blog going, where he was nice enough to mention Chaos Magnet. Thanks!

Jessica Lynch disputes accounts

So Jessica Lynch says that her rescue wasn't as dramatic as the military says it was. She also says that Iraqis treated her well, though military doctors claim to have found signs of sexual assault.

So why do we feel a little bit of suspicion that four of her rescuers are already dead?

The XML book business

I am pretty darn proud of XML Primer Plus. I knew the subject well, and I worked hard on it. I also feel good about the fact that it covers not only Java, but also C++, VB.NET, Perl, and PHP, thanks to the help of some additional writers. The reviews have all been good, and even the four star review on Amazon says that the only reason he didn't give me five stars is because he feels that that levels should be reserved for "recognized experts in the field," which I clearly am not.

But sales have been, frankly, disappointing. I was feeling really bad about it -- until I found out that The XML Book Business is in the toilet. With very few exceptions (and frankly I can't think of any), nobody's XML books are selling.

So tell me, are you buying XML books? Why or why not?

It was bound to happen

A couple of months ago, I was reading an article in either Time or Newsweek that talked about the "Dean phenomenon" and pointed out that every time there's an outsider phenom like Dean, he eventually makes a rookie mistake and everybody jumps on him. Well, he finally did it. Apparently he made a remark, in response to a reporter's question about his courting of gun-rights activists in the 1990's, that he'd "like to be the candidate of the guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks."

Um, yeah. Probably not the best move he could have made. What disturbs me is that while the remark wasn't racially motivated, he reportedly claimed that he did it to start a dialogue about race, but he'd done it "clumsily." Bad move, IMO. Kind of reminds me of my teenage son, who will keep changing tactics in an argument until he finds one that sticks.

He should have simply apologized to begin with and pointed out the context of the remark. It would have been over and done with. Now it's going to haunt him for months.

On another note, Dean is considering refusing Federal matching funds so that he doesn't have to adhere to the $45 million spending limit for the primaries. Why? Because Bush is planning to raise $170 million -- and has already said he won't take the matching funds.

Your site, viewed in Lynx

When I was designing this site, I used CSS to create a layout that was both aesthetically pleasing -- OK, I'll settle for not hideously ugly -- but still accessible to those with text-based browsers. For a long time when I mentioned text-based browsers, people laughed at me, but many of the accessibility software, such as screen readers for the blind, use this method. But still, I wondered what the site would actually "look" like. Now, thanks to this link from Redemption, I've found that you can view your site in Lynx without having to actually install it. (You can, believe it or not, still get Lynx, even for Windows!) And actually, this site doesn't look half bad. A few tweaks and I may add the "Lynx Inspected" icon.

Napster's (not quite) back

So I downloaded Napster 2.0 a bit warily. I really, truly, don't mind paying for music. But I wasted an hour yesterday finding tracks only to discover that without signing up for the service I could only hear 30 seconds of them. I'd have appreciated a warning up front.

A clock for the frustrated

Careful, it's a little hypnotic: Industrious Clock

Mourning a man we never knew

I don't understand why I'm taking John Ritter's death as hard as I am. I mean, he was an actor. It's not like he was President of the United States, or a relative, or even someone I'd met once on a street corner. I wasn't even a huge, obsessive fan of his. I admit that I never watched 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter until he passed away. Today I watched the one hour show in which the family deals with the death of his character, and it was as though I had lost someone that I knew.

Maybe it's just that he always seemed so ... nice. Just a genuinely nice person. One of those people, I guess, who makes you believe that maybe, just maybe, there are decent people in this world after all.

In case you were wondering, the show handled it very, very well. Some understated comedy that fit in with the normal rythm of the show, but no laugh track, so you could decide for yourself whether it was appropriate to laugh. And somehow, they made a show that made it OK to miss him, and to feel genuine sorrow at his passing.

Goodbye, John.

Profiteers ahoy!

Gee, I wonder why The House Nixed Anti-Profiteering Penalties in the Iraq Spending Bill.

Even George Sr. doesn't agree with George Jr.

Andy Rooney has written a great speech for President Bush.

Fun doesn't have to be on-topic

Prevailing wisdom is that a blog should only be about one thing. Obviously I don't follow that rule. Ned Batchelder doesn't either, and I'm very, very glad. Ned's an interesting guy, with interests from his autistic son, Nat, to CSS and other tech topics, to science. And anybody who can point me to the Theory of Relativity in words of four letters or less is OK in my book. Rock on, Ned!

Quantum computing: the next wave?

I actually have a degree in physics, but of course I haven't used it in years. Lately, though, I've been thinking of catching up on a little Quantum Electrodynamics. I did read through QED, which I remembered using in my class in college, but when I started looking into textbooks, I discovered that they're unimaginably expensive. One of them was over a hundred bucks! Now I'm really interested, with quantum computing starting to make news. For example: Japanese boffins advance quantum computing, Boffins unveil world's most powerful quantum computer and IBM demos quantum computing.

Maybe it's more worth studying than I thought...

Free (and legal) music

With Napster coming back on the scene (been there yet?) it's interesting to look at what's out there for free. Kuro5hin has an interesting piece, Snubbing the RIAA, Part I that lists a goodly number of sites with free, legal music.

The CSS Zen Garden

My latest entry over on my InformIT blog talks about the CSS Zen Garden, which shows over a hunder different looks using the same HTML file and different CSS files. A lot of them are absolutely gorgeous. Being desing-challenged myself, I'm a little bit jealous.

Conspiracy theories and the Federal Reserve Bank

I meantioned in a previous post that I was going to look into the issue of the Federal Reserve, and whether the entire US economic system is in place to benefit eight banking families to the extent that the "national debt" is owed to this private corporation, which could foreclose if it wanted to, essentially owning all government assets.

Well, apparently this is a pretty popular conspiracy theory, 'cause there are lots and lots of pages talking about it. Of course, most of them repeat the same under-researched "facts" verbatim. And that, gentle reader, is why I hesitate to believe these things until I check them out myself.

What I've found is that the conspiracy theorists are right. And they're wrong.

The Federal Reserve Bank was established in 1914 by the Federal Reserve Act. It's owned by member banks, which is basically defined as any nationally chartered bank -- the ones with "National" or "n.a." in their names -- and any state chartered bank that wants to buy in. There are 12 main Federal Reserve Banks, each owned by the banks in their legislatively defined regions.

Now let's get to the issue of "ownership." Yes, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York is the largest and most powerful, but no, it's not owned by "foreigners" either directly or indirectly. According to Edward Flaherty's Who Owns the Federal Reserve, the owners of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York are American-owned banks. (Citicorp, one of the eight largest owners, reportedly is 8.9% owned by a Saudi prince, but supposedly none of the other banks have significant foreign ownership.)

The Federal Reserve does control monetary policy, through setting interest rates and determining how much money a bank must hold in reserve. In other words, a bank that has, say, $7 billion in accounts on paper only has to have $1 billion on hand at any given time. The rest can be lent out at interest. The control of these two policies -- interest rates and reserves -- seems to be a particularly grevious crime to the conspiracy theorists, but actually, it's the reason the Fed was created in the first place.

I found a fascinating history of US banking, Banking and the Federal Reserve System, which explained that prior to the creation of the Fed, state banks were routinely issuing more money than they could actually back with their gold reserves, leading to an unstable and in some cases, worthless currency. (For much of US history, there was no single US currency; banks issued thier own notes of various financial quality.)

Which leads me to the issue of the national debt, and why we even need one. After all, if the government needs money, why not just print some? It sounds good in principle, but one needs only to look at countries that have tried it to see that it leads to unimaginable inflation due to worthless currency. (Remember those stories about WWII-era Germans and wheelbarrows of cash to buy a loaf of bread?) In the worst cases, a national government can actually default on its debt.

In short, paper money only means something if it's backed by something tangible, even if it's several layers removed. US currency used to be backed by gold; $1 in currency could, in principle, be exchanged for $1 in gold from the US Treasury. That's no longer the case, but US currency is backed by "The full faith and credit of the US Government." In other words, the ability of the government to collect taxes. (No, I haven't looked into that one yet.)

So where does that leave us? Well, the Fed can buy a paper bill of any denomination for a few cents. I've seen 2 cents, I've seen 4 cents, the actual amount isn't important; the important thing is that the Fed can buy a $100 bill for virtually nothing. It then uses that $100 to buy a Treasury Bill, on which it earns interest. So let's say, for the sake of argument, that $100 Treasury Bill earns $10 in interest. I haven't studied T-Bills and have no idea what the actual numbers are, but again, it's not crucial to the discussion.

So the Fed spent 2 cents and came out with $110. That's some profit. I'd love a piece of that action! So what happens to all that profit?

According to the Federal Reserve Act of 1914, the Fed first deducts operating expenses (which is reasonable), then pays a 6% dividend to the member banks, (which is also almost reasonable). According to the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, expenses were 5.3% ($1.59 billion out of $29.9 billion revenue), or in our example, $5.84. That leaves $107.16, less $6.43 in dividends, for $100.73 in profit.

But where does that go? Now it depends on what source you're citing, I'm afraid. According to the version of the Federal Reserve Act on the Federal Reserve web site, that profit all goes into the "surplus fund" of the Federal Reserve Bank, from which banks borrow (at interest) when they don't have enough to cover their deposits. This document also says that the amount transfered to the US Treasury in 2000 was $3.752 billion. Why would the Fed give the money to the Treasury?

Again, it depends who you ask. I have one version of the Federal Reserve Act that says that the profit, after dividends, is to be split, with one half going into the surplus fund and the other going to the Treasury. The version on the Fed's web site doesn't say anything about it, and just mentions the $3.752 billion.

Interesting, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco shows the 2000 amount transferred to the treasury as $25 billion. Something's not right here.

What I think I need to do is call the Federal Reserve Bank and ask a few pointed questions. (Scroll down to the actual questions.) Allegedly, someone already did in 1992, but as already demonstrated, I like to find these things out for myself.

Once again, I'll let you know what I come up with.

In the meantime, Flaherty also notes that only 7.5% (or thereabouts) of the National Debt is owed to the Federal Reserve, which is more on a par with what I expected. So that shoots a hole in the theory that the Fed was just waiting to foreclose on the US Government.

But there is one disturbing fact that can't be escaped. There is simply not enough currency in existance to pay off the National Debt. Period. This is because of the whole "reserve" system. I take $20 and put it in the bank, and the bank lends out $120. The borrowers deposit that $120 and the bank lends out $720. From my $20, the economy suddenly has $860 -- on paper. Similarly, we have a $4 trillion national debt (in 1992 -- I have no idea what it is now) and only $263 billion in actual paper currency.

Not good. Something will have to be done. But I don't know what.

And I don't think anybody else does, either.