Several tech writers seem to believe that Sony’s Blu-ray disc technology and high definition movie recordings are on their way out before they got much of a foothold in the market.  Although Sony had predicted a 50% market share by this year, their sales presently account for only about 5% of video discs sold.  With up-converting DVD players selling at a much lower price and only a minimal difference in high definition quality, there is little incentive for the consumer to pay big bucks for a Blu-ray player or over $25.00 for a Blu-ray movie disc.  The conclusion appears to be that “if Hollywood expects to be selling DVDs in five years, they need to make Blu-ray an affordable standard.”  There is even some speculation that movies will no longer be recorded on discs, but on flash drives.

Rather than chance making nonsensical blunders or embarrassing myself with misinterpreted statistics, I will refer the reader to some very recent original articles and the discussions that go with them:

Blu-ray ix-nay? 

Blu-ray is dead – heckuva job, Sony!

Pioneer ups Blu-ray discs to 16 layers, 400GB capacity.

SlySoft cracks Blu-ray BD+ encryption.

Techreport.com forum discussion.

Many people like Blu-ray and it is certainly their prerogative to purchase and use whatever equipment pleases them.  I freely admit to a strong bias against Sony since two undisclosed rootkit implants on their DVDs seriously damaged the computers of people who even attempted to make an archival copy or record the DVD to their hard drive.  This potential development only serves to reinforce my decision never to buy another Sony product (regardless of how good they are and how much I might want them.)

Peace, Doc

Copyright © 2008, Thomas A. Blood, Ph.D.

“There’s a sucker born every minute.” – Usually erroneously attributed to P. T. Barnum but much likelier stated by Mr. George Hull, a hoaxer and Barnum’s competitor.

One might think that question would have a reasonably obvious answer.  Maybe the center of a river or a tiny line that one cannot see but which is determined by survey.  Maybe by a fence or by a checkpoint on a road.  All of those definitions are correct for some circumstances, but I wasn’t as current as I thought I was. 

I have ranted and attempted to enlighten my readers about the loss of freedoms that have multiplied since 9/11, the PATRIOT ACT of 2001 and the more recently amended USA PATRIOT  Improvement and Reauthorization Act.  Recently the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) was passed, but has not yet been used to the full extent permitted.  Laptop computers and other personal information storage devices of US citizens returning to this country may be inspected and seized as deemed necessary by the border agent.  Additionally, physical and X-ray searches are permitted under the same circumstances.  Matthew Harwood of The Guardian writes:

“Although relatively unknown, when travellers try to re-enter the country from abroad, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reserves the right to not only search a traveller's laptop and electronic devices without reasonable suspicion, but also to seize them and copy their contents for the government's viewing pleasure. CBP officers even have the right to demand a traveller's passwords and encryption keys to their electronic devices. If a traveller refuses, they are not welcome in the US. The CBP and its parent organisation, the Department of Homeland Security, has not made public the protocols that determine what rules govern the officers' actions to safeguard returning Americans from abuse and discrimination.”

Roadblocks or checkpoints have been encountered well within the United States with agents who have the same search and detention authorization.  The ACLU has explained the extent to which these powers may now be legally used.  To me, the most frightening aspect of this further erosion of civil liberties is the government’s definition of what constitutes the border for these purposes:

“But what is ‘the border’?  According to the government, it  is a 100-mile wide strip that wraps around the ‘external boundary’ of the United States. As a result of this claimed authority, individuals who are far away from the border, American citizens traveling from one place in America to another, are being stopped and harassed in ways that our Constitution does not permit.”  ACLU - 2008

When displayed visually, as in the ACLU illustration below, it becomes clear that “the border” encompasses the majority of the largest US population centers, and includes approximately 179 million people.  I live within 50 miles of the “external boundary” as defined here, so I could easily be stopped for no reason apparent to me but “appearing suspicious” to the authorities.  How could they know that I haven’t crossed an international border in over 40 years?  From the database entries that are being accumulated about all of us all of the time.   It is possible that I could be stopped, taken into custody, held without charges, have my laptop confiscated, be forced to reveal my passwords and encryption keys, and by law, not allowed to reveal to anyone what had happened to me.  In this fantasy, all I wanted was the week’s groceries and of course this has not really happened to me.  Yet.  I certainly hope that I am just being paranoid again, but I believe that our laws should be transparent enough and publicized sufficiently that every citizen at least knows about them, even if they do not agree with them.

There will be future posts about Deep Packet Inspection, known but usually not thought about methods of observation, the collection, use, and misuse of personal database information, backscatter X-Ray surveillance, and other topics I might happen to be irritated about at the moment.

Peace, Doc

Copyright © 2008, Thomas A. Blood, Ph.D.

“None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.” - Goethe

Do you plan to vote early?  I do.  It has been said several times on the TV news that it indicates that you have already made a firm decision about your candidates and nothing much beyond this point is likely to change it.  OK.  I’ll buy that, as it definitely applies to me.  As of yesterday morning, over 213,000 citizens of Kane County, IL, had cast early votes.  Illinois voters may determine times, locations, and requirements for their counties here.

In 31 states, one does not have to be out of the country or have any reason other than wanting to vote early or absentee to do so.  Google provides an interactive map that will lead you to the laws in your state by clicking on it.  A measure of certainty is also added when voting early.  What if you’re sick or injured on November 4th and can’t get to the polls?  What if you live in an area where your transportation is not assured?  What if you die?  (Not that it would necessarily disqualify your vote in Chicago politics.)  What if you just want to quit listening to “erratic,” “socialist,” “unqualified,” “moose murderer,” age and health issues, and all the other accusations and counter-accusations being thrown around for the next two weeks?  Truly, I am absolutely sick of it, while smaller issues like, oh say the Iraq/Afghanistan wars, international relations, a chaotic financial crisis, environmental concerns, have seemingly been put on hold. 

Following my early vote, I will again concentrate on tasks I urgently need to accomplish.  I have discerned at least one of those tasks from the very recent experience of Bittle becoming frightened by “something,” (almost anything can do that) climbing my chest, and leaping over my right shoulder.  His rear claws absolutely need trimming, and as a result of this experience I know that I will never, ever consider having a nipple ring installed.  I will, possibly, try to return to a more socially acceptable diurnal cycle.  It is also possible that I might throw away a few more objects from “the room that must be entered with great caution.”  I may or may not go into survivalist mode, or maybe just more than I am already.

I have tried to avoid being particular partisan in advocating for early voting, but I will ask residents of Illinois to strongly consider a NO vote on the proposed call for a State of Illinois Constitutional Convention.  Illinois residents have already received a mailing outlining the pros and cons of the vote (and a .pdf version is available) so I won’t go into detail, but it is my opinion that it is unnecessary at this time and has a strong potential of being quite destabilizing to the state in several sectors.

Peace, Doc

Copyright © 2008, Thomas A. Blood, Ph.D.

“I have said there that when Europe gets a ruler lodged in her gullet, there is no help for it but a bloody revolution; here we go and get a great big, emetical ballot, and heave it up.
- Mark Twain - Interview Dec. 1889

The “Photo Meme” with which Jade tagged me, and for which there will be future consequences, appears below:

A) Answer the questions below, do a Google Image search with your answer, take a picture from the first page of results, and do it with minimal words of explanation.

B) Tag 5 other people to do the same once you’ve finished answering every question.

1) Age you will be on your next birthday.

2) A place you want to go.

3) Your favorite place.

4) Your favorite food.

5) Your favorite pet.

6) Your favorite color combination.

7) Your favorite piece of clothing.

8) Your favorite TV show.

9) First name of your significant other.

Yes, I find this one somewhat hard to believe myself.  When I entered the search phrase “Stinky and Bittle cats” into Google search with safe search off and the number of images set to 100, these were #64 and #66.  They are both pictures from this blog.  Perhaps Google shortchanged me on my last AdSense check.

10) Town in which you live.

11) Your first job.

12) Your dream job.

13) A bad habit you have.

14) Your worst fear.

15) What you’d like to do before you die.  (Yeah.  For real.  Take it to the limit one more time!)

Peace, Doc

“You just can't stay seventeen forever.” – American Graffiti    Where were you in ‘62?

There is presently a great deal of confusion, uncertainty, misinformation, disinformation, and theories about what has happened to the economy.  When I use the phrase “the economy” it should probably be capitalized to be “The Economy,” as what has devastated the United States has seriously negatively affected the World’s Economy.  The past years of deregulation, sub-prime mortgages, an apparently overinflated stock market, and an unnecessary war we couldn’t afford, have certainly contributed to the current state of affairs.  (Affairs of State?)  I have little solid knowledge or “facts” with which to form an educated opinion.  As a psychologist, it is easy to see that, beyond a critical point distrust leads to active disbelief and a frantic search for answers.  When trust fails, it is very hard to regain, whether it is between individuals, the individual or group and the government, or between nations.  In a vacuum of accurate information, fear breeds greater fear and that greater fear, if not assuaged, leads to panic.

When that panic occurs, as in an individual’s panic attack, groups and nations begin to show many of the same symptoms.  There is the grasping for an explanation of what is happening, and when one is “found” (consciously or not) the group or sub-groups strongly tend to behave “as if” that explanation is true.  The less that is known to be objectively true, the higher is the likelihood that various individuals’, sub-groups’, and large groups’ beliefs and actions are to differ.  This would seem to be approximately where we are now.  With a stable state, societal desensitization will possibly occur and reason will return.  With such a diversity of “as ifs” in circulation, strong, believable, trustworthy, and respected leaders and organizations are needed to re-establish rational group behavior.  On a personal note, I don’t recall any that would have fit those criteria for me since John F. Kennedy.

During times of great uncertainty, information from well documented explanations to ridiculous conspiracy theories will be found in abundance.  Such an explanation, in Internet video form, has become a buzz.  It is a production that has been produced in multiple “chapters” and shown on YouTube until it reached completion.  The name of the movie is Zeitgeist and it runs a bit over two hours.  For those with dialup connections, you might want to download a single chapter dealing with the origin of the Federal Reserve System from YouTube, or purchase the whole DVD for $5.00. 

I neither support nor discount the contents of the movie.  It delves into topics of which I have no direct knowledge and others that I do.  Some appears ludicrous and some feels intuitively correct.  Some is sufficiently documented and some appears to be guesswork.  One definitive statement I can make; it is … interesting.  You won’t feel neutral about it if you watch it.

Peace, Doc

Copyright © 2008, Thomas A. Blood, Ph.D.

Ike

Most of my readers know the extent to which I will go to recycle, when possible.  Getting a carload of aluminum cans to a recycler was part of a previous post.  I still recycle everything that will be accepted since moving into the apartment.  I believe I have just been rewarded for being an environmentally conscientious old coot.

I have intermittently mentioned wanting a new PC, but finding that everything that I configured or found on special sale were well above my budget.  I continued to search until I made my way into the land of the used and refurbished.  I tend to do that sort of research for several months before making my impulse purchases.  I saw many PC’s that “looked good” online, but I did not know the seller, in what condition the computer really was, and that gut feeling that whenever something looks too good to be true, it generally is.  I began to search more deeply into the offerings of companies I do trust and found some good offers on factory refurbished PC’s.  I didn’t see anything quite close enough to what I wanted to be willing to part with actual money.  I finally found that Tiger Direct advertised good refurbished deals, but concentrated on the ones that they believed would be the best sellers.  That’s reasonable for any business advertising, and admittedly I wanted something a bit out of the mainstream.  Then I discovered that I should be looking at the related deals in the sidebars.  Different versions of the same basic model were there.  Then I saw it.

In case the link to the ad is discontinued, it is a factory refurbished HP m8467c with an AMD 2.2 GHz, quad core Phenom processor with 5 GB of RAM, 640 GB hard drive (2 x 320 GB drives,) NVIDIA GeForce 8400HD, DVD+/-RW/RAM Dual Layer burner with Lightscribe, Wi-Fi LAN, a 15 in 1 media reader, a wireless keyboard and mouse, and 64 bit Vista Home Premium OS.  I was pleased.  Even the hard drive(s) would seem to lend themselves to dual booting the PC with my beloved XP Pro OS.  I ordered it at about 3:15 a.m. Wednesday.  My first credit card was refused (the company was protecting me) but a second one worked fine.  It was processed at 6:55 p.m. Wednesday and arrived today, Thursday, at 1:57 p.m.

I have not yet “fired it up” as I want to make certain that I do all possible to make the dual-boot setup as easy as possible.  I can see absolutely nothing that I have inspected to have anything whatever wrong with it.  Not even a surface scratch.  The only bit of data on the spec sheet that concerns me is that it has only a 300 watt power supply.  It would only cost $40 or $50 to replace it with one double that wattage.  Oh, did I mention this PC lists for $1,999.99 and I bought it for $649.99.  I thought it would be a good idea to buy it while the dollar is still spendable.

Peace, Doc

Copyright © 2008, Thomas A. Blood, Ph.D.

“Woot!  Woot!” – Doc

JFK

Of course the title is misleading.  People should know by now that I am working my way up to being a quasi-real writer.  I figure that if I emulate the tabloids I see while waiting in the grocery store checkout line, soon I’ll learn how to write in a manner that sells.  I frequently slip back into my own style after the title, but the headlines are about all most people read anyway, before they buy the rag.  Come to think of it, though, I’ve never actually seen anyone buy one.

The topic is really more about the difficulty involved in the removal of safety caps from various containers.  I have had a general dislike for changes in products which have been changed “for my own good,” or are “new and improved,” especially when the earlier version worked just fine.  “Church keys” always worked on beverages in bottles or cans.  This could not be left alone.  We had to develop “easy open caps” and pop tops.  Neither worked well, at least to begin with.  The easy open caps were so hard to open that one beer company ran an ad making fun of itself.  In the ad, a professional wrestler grunted and groaned for 15 or 20 seconds before finally getting the cap off.  He then proudly announced that, “Da Crusher do good!”  I believe I have felt the way that Da Crusher was portrayed after either mastering or disabling nearly every “improvement” of which I didn’t approve. 

There is one, however, that I have yet to conquer – the child-proof cap!  These could be any of the alleged safety caps which have me spraying myself with Lysol to automotive chemicals one cannot open without a screwdriver.  Recently my favorite Mom and Pop pharmacy closed its doors and I had to switch to a large chain drug store.  That was when my renewed difficulty with safety caps began.  The previous pharmacists knew that I lived alone and simply used snap on caps for the prescriptions.  The new drug store provides containers that are so mechanically complex as to be “everybody-safe.   I’m sure you’ve seen the type.  The caps are two-ended; one is child-resistant and is held closed by a daemonic protrusion extending from the container and engaging the cap in such a way that it is easier to cut it off than to depress it as intended.  When turned over, it is deceptively simple; an easy to open, threaded screw-on cap.  Depending upon the type of plastic used, they seem either to fuse themselves to the bottom part or open quite easily.  This arrangement does not sound so complicated.  Why doesn’t he just open them and quit complaining, you may ask.  Because there are other variables in the equation to be considered, he answers.  Temperature, size of container, amount of torque last used to close the lid, cross threading, manufacturer’s acceptable variation in size tolerance all play a role, as well as other factors I have not yet discovered.

The stage is now set.  When opening smaller containers I encountered few difficulties except for the occasional too tightly closed lid.  The trouble came with a large container with a cross threaded top, approximately 2/3 the size of a Pepsi can, and filled with horse pills.  The more firmly I grasped the container the more solidly stuck the top became.  The warmth of my hand, however, appeared to expand the top of the container slightly (without warning me) just at the time I resorted to the brute force approach of wrenching the top up and sideways.  Under this set of conditions the cap came off easily in my right hand while my left threw 150 very large tablets across the room, even bouncing a few off the opposite wall.  Presently I have not decided between carving a 1/2 inch square opening in the cap and using a breaker bar or drilling two opposing holes in the cap through which a steel rod can be inserted, creating a lever.

Medicine bottles

Child-safe or elder abuse

Pills in eight foot arc

Peace, Doc

Copyright © 2008, Thomas A. Blood, Ph.D.

“One of the most frightening things about your true nerd, for may people, is not that he's socially inept - because everybody's been there - but rather his complete lack of embarrassment about it.” - Neal Stephenson

For about the past week I have been in a series of states, somewhere between moderate crankiness and full-out, “I’m madder than hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.”  (Except for the fact that I don’t have much of a choice other than to take it.)   I began to rearrange my financial affairs about three months ago such that they were so conservative as to be laughable – at that time.  At least I was correct in doing that, although I had hoped I was just being silly.  For all concerned, I hate the reasons I felt it necessary to act in that manner, but the simple perceived need for self-preservation took over.  The Senate and the House lived down to my expectations when a three-page refusal to financially patch the economy, on a temporary basis, turned into a 451 page bill, laden with “pork” which, of course, passed today.  The tactics were the same.  Scare the hell out of us so that we were afraid not to act.  This time, however, it seems that they scared themselves more than the citizenry.  Deficit spending became so blatantly evident that hardly anyone could miss it.  I’ve heard that roughly 90% of average citizens polled were against the bailout.  That sounds a little high to me.  I believe that we have more than 10% stupid citizens.  It also becomes clear that our elected representatives do not follow the expressed mandates of their electorate, but do what they say is “necessary” and “in our best interest.”

I spent a good deal of time writing to assorted State and Federal Legislators and Agency Heads.  All, from my State senator and representatives, Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates, Federal Reserve Board, Speaker of the House, and so on up to President Bush, received the same two-word message.

I started to research the Federal Reserve Board to write a post about it, but it appears that one can only get so far “in” before a wall of fog is encountered and names are not there.  I’m sorry that I cannot be more factual, but as Carlin said in my last post, we are owned, and it becomes very difficult to determine by whom.

Rum tax relief?  NASCAR subsidies?  Wooden arrow shaft tax breaks?  At least the shaft part sounds accurate when connected to the $110B of pork that was added by the Senate to the $700B to bring it up to even more monumental proportions.  I can’t comprehend the enormity of that amount of money, but we are warned that this is likely to be just a beginning and that we can expect further spending and hardships.

I do have one tiny suggestion for Governor Palin that might generate some revenue for Alaska.  The road to the bridge to nowhere has already been built but is not being used.  Turn it into a Dragstrip.

Peace, Doc

Copyright © 2008, Thomas A. Blood, Ph.D.

“Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself.” - Mark Twain