Grounded

Grounded: Millionaire John Gilmore stays close to home while making a point about privacy

Summary

John Gilmore's splendid isolation began July 4, 2002, when, with defiance aforethought, he strolled to the Southwest Airlines counter at Oakland Airport and presented his ticket.

The gate agent asked for his ID.

Gilmore asked her why.

It is the law, she said.

Gilmore asked to see the law.

Nobody could produce a copy. To date, nobody has. The regulation that mandates ID at airports is "Sensitive Security Information." The law, as it turns out, is unavailable for inspection.

I don't fly much, but when I do, I'm typically the guy you see over on the Group W bench.

I'm not sure why. I was born in the United States, second generation Irish/German. I'm 6'3" tall, bald, beard and in my late 40's. I have a current US Passport. I'm typically traveling between major US cities on a round trip ticket purchased at least a week prior to travel.

Unless I thought about it when I got dressed that morning, my toes may be sticking out of my socks. My belt may be off, or loose. The TSA guy is sticking his hand into the waistband of my pants. Then, if I'm lucky, I get a pat-down. If the TSA person is short, its interesting because he has to reach over his head to pat down my chest or shoulders. All the while, my stuff is going through a special inspection.

Do I feel safer when I travel? Not really.

Do I believe that the TSA is effective? No. Any process that goes to the lowest bidder is inherently flawed. I believe the 'random' process for selecting travelers for more through security checks is useless. If the government and FAA really wanted to make travel more secure, they would give up this politically correct system and use analytical tools to select travelers that are truely security risks. In other words, profile travelers. Duh! They did it in the 70's, why not make the system useful.

From 1974 through 1979, I was stopped in every state between NJ and GA when I drove back and forth to college in Atlanta, GA. Why? Because I had long hair, a beard, drove beat up cars (Corvair and various VW's), out of state plates and was traveling at off hours.

Is this wrong? Not really. The only thing wrong was getting tickets (failure to dim lights on an interstate highway at 3AM...) for non-moving violations just to generate revenue.

Red Dwarf returns to PBS

Red DwarfRed Dwarf is going to be broadcast on WYBE Public TelevisionWYBE in the Philadelphia area.

I watched it long ago in Ireland, then off and on with regional PBS channels.

UCSC Engineering Building Gets an 8bit Upgrade

UCSC Engineering Building Gets an 8bit Upgrade

Pretty cool. This is why you should go to college.

Its National Engineers Week and the UCSC students celebrated by creating Super Mario Brothers characters using Post-It Notes in the computer science building windows.

"Super Mario Bros. (Miyamato, et. al.,1986) was an inspiration to many of todays computer engineers. In celebration of Engineering Week, this large format work was created as an homage to the inspirational works of these and other great computer engineers and scientists. Currently 3/4 of this work is still visible at the E2 building at UCSC, it is scheduled to be removed Friday night. "

A Note to the FCC - Call their bluff...

Mark Cuban is owner of the Mavericks bball team and he 'gets it'. 
It also looks like the federal judge 'gets it' and has rejected the FCC, MPAA, RIAA arguements that without the Broadcast Flag they will be 'giving away' digital content.

A couple years ago CBS threatened to pull the plug on High Def programming if the FCC didnt push forward rules supporting the Broadcast Flag.

For those that dont know, the Broadcast Flag is basically a digital switch that over the air broadcasters, the major broadcast networks, can set to potentially prevent viewers from recording their broadcasts. If they dont want you copying their show to your Tivo/PVR hard drive, the switch could prevent it. Or they could set it so you could copy it one time, but not make any further copies.

When CBS made their threat, an argument could have been made that their content was needed to help speed up the adoption of HDTV.  Back then, the HDTVs were more expensive, and if CBS stopped broadcasting in HD, it could have given potential buyers a reason not to buy a new HDTV.

Now the momentum has flipped. The HDTV cat is out of the bag. Its not that the majority of homes have high def sets, they dont and wont for a good 5 years. However, the number of people who do have HDTVs LOVE THEM.  When you have millions and millions of consumers who have paid their hard earned money for a product they love, the only thing that would happen if a network broadcaster pulled the plug on their HD feeds is that their would be a switchboard meltdown at that broadcaster and the number of complaints the FCC would get would dwarf the Janet Jackson response.

Thats on the national level.

On the local level, forgettaboutit. Every affiliate of that broadcaster would go through living hell. There are still a lot of HD viewers that get their signal from over the air feeds. These are the most outspoken consumers who call and give grief to an affiliate when a show is upconverted rather than shown in true HD. If a show isnt shown at all in HD, the phones ring longer and the Emails come quicker.  If its a major event, its not suprising for the local station general manager to get threats of bodily harm. I cant even imagine the hell that Fox affiliates that didnt carry the SuperBowl went through from their viewers.

Im telling you, there is no chance that the national  network broadcasters pull back from HD. Their affiliates would revolt , side by side with their viewers in enough numbers, and with a loud enough voice, that the pain would last a long time.

But lets just say, for the sake of example that one of the network broadcasters did stop broadcasting in HD. They could do it in one of two ways. They could stop all of their broadcasting, which I dont they are stupid enough to do, or they could seperate their broadcasts. They could offer an HD feed to the cable and satellite distributors they already have HD deals with, and then offer only a low definition feed for over the air broadcasts.

The irony of the impact should make the FCC smile, if not blush.

By offering HD feeds only to cable and satellite, it would push viewers who had previously relied on antennas, but were buying a new HDTV (for those that dont know, you can buy a 27” HDTV ready set for under 300 dollars and falling now), or that already had an HDTV,  towards signing up with an HD sat or cable provider for not just their HDTV, but also to support their analog TVs.

Anything that transitions TVs from receiving signals over the air , via antenna reception to utilizing a digital cable or satellite box pushs the analog to digital transition one baby step closer.

So if one of the networks threatens to pull their HD signal because of the broadcast flag… call their bluff. 

The same applies to the Movie Industry. MPAA has been quoted as saying that “without the flag, high value content would migrate to where it could be protected.” Yeah right. Just like the music industry switched their content back from CDs to  cassette tapes and LPs. I havent seen a movement on the part of the music industry to switch from DVDs and their digital image back to VHS… “where it could be protected”. The movie business complained about DVDs and threatened to not support them…. until they started making more money from DVDs than theatrical release.

Protect the MPAA members from themselves and their lies. Its all BS.  Call their bluff.

We dont need the broacast flag. It accomplishes absolutely nothing other than to set a precedent that the content industry can intimidate the FCC….

That said, although the broadcast flag is bad for consumers in every possible way, it would be great for my content businesses. HDNet Films, 2929 Entertainment, Rysher Entertainment, The Dallas Mavericks, HDNet Productions, www.hd.net, every single content entity I have would benefit from the broadcast flag. Not because it would protect content, it wouldnt. Content doesnt need any special  protections. There are enough laws on the books regarding theft that no special content laws are needed.

 They all would benefit because we wouldnt use the broadcast flag. While the big networks would create confusion and anger with their customers, our businesses could be the knight in shining armour and provide content in exactly the means consumers want it, unencumbered and available to watch, where and how they like.

Before I sign off, and since Im high on the soap box, since Ive touched on the subject of the analog to digital transition, let me make one point there that I think is being overlooked.

THe value of reclaiming the analog spectrum is not just in the 25 Billion dollars or more that could go into the government treasury from its sale, but also in the bandwidth that is freed up at cable MSOs. Most cable providers have nearly 80 analog channels chewing up their valuable bandwidth. AT approximately 38mbs PER CHANNEL, thats nearly 3 Gigabytes of bandwidth that can be freed up to be used for digital applications. Those applications could be not only HD channels, but just as importantly, bandwidth for broadband connections.  Free up 3GBs and you could see the bandwidth available to your house expand to unheard of levels.

So the transition from analog to digital tv is not just about television, its as much about expanding the broadband opportunities to every home passed by cable. Thats good for all of us.

No more Gonzo Journalism

Hunter S. Thompson killed himself this weekend.

I suppose it was inevitable. He was nuts, drank, used drugs, and had too many guns. Many years ago, I thought Thompson shooting himself was inevitable, but now that I am older, I realize that 65 is just too young to die. Suicide is a cowards way out and a symptom of a deeper illness.

My first exposure to Thompson was during Jimmy Carter's campaign for the Presidency. It was published in Rolling Stone. He was the first person to nail that Carter would go on to win the election. No one else had a clue. It was also the first election I was eligible to vote. Very turbulent times.

After that, I read "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" (and saw "Where The Buffalo Roam" with Bill Murray).

I think Thompson committed suicide for the same reasons as Hemmingway. Two very different writers from different times, but pursued by the same demons (not daemons).

Anonymous comments disabled

More comment spam. Its not a big 'threat', its just annoying.

I also want to eliminate the possibility of something really nasty being posted. IF this is a big issue for anyone, send me e-mail directly (nospam at paulbegley dot com).

GMAIL Invitations - 50 left

I have 50 more GMail invitations available if anyone is interested. Its looks like the more invitations you send and are accepted, the more invitations you receive from Google. Earlier this month, they bumped the invitations to 50. I sent out another 5-6 invitations, and they bumped it back up to 50.

Just send e-mail to nospam at paulbegley dot com with a non-free e-mail account (invites to Hotmail, Yahoo and others don't appear to work). You don't have to know me, I just want to share the love...

Borrowing from Future Social Security Benefits: The Administration's Proposal for Individual Accounts

Borrowing from Future Social Security Benefits: The Administration's Proposal for Individual Accounts

I heard Peter Orszag's testimony on CSPAN while driving to Washington DC earlier this month. I was stunned at the clarity of his arguements and the concise nature of his presentation.
This guy didn't stutter, stammer or hesitate once during his testimony. He had a very clear understanding of all the facts related to Social Security and a compelling case against the Bush plan.

This is a worthwhile read, regardless of where you stand on Social Security.

More On Jeff Gannon

From www.j-blog.com.

I wonder if the Whitehouse, the RNC or other Republican sources will have any public comment on how this guy got press credentials.  Given the Religious Right leaning of this administration, I'm particularly amused that this guy was a prostitute (other than for the Republicans and Bush administration).

This whole Jeff Gannon / James Guckert thing is getting pretty interesting. Yeah, I admit... I've been following it at, mainly at AMERICAblog and Editor & Publisher. Jeff Gannon is the fake reporter who worked for a fake news agency, and -- somehow -- was able to get into the White House press conferences and ask Bush and his press secretary easy questions.

A few days ago, his public life was revealed to the world (he was a male prostitute) and he vowed that he would stop talking to the press. But then tonight, he appeared on CNN and made a complete fool of himself. He's now the official laughing stock of the Internet. Jeff/James -- for your own sake, take your own advice: shut the hell up.

At one point, I thought that it was possible that he was a White House "plant." But the White House bigwigs can't be so stupid as to let him continue to talk to the press, can they? If Guckert was really a plant installed by the White House, he would be dead by now (suicide or an auto accident). So now I just think he's just your average run-of-the mill egotistical moron.

But I still wonder how he got into the White House with absolutely no credentials and a fake name. Apparently, he's been doing it since early 2003 -- before his fake news agency even existed. This has been a big blog story for quite a while, and now the mainstream media are finally picking up it. For example, see CBS's: Rove-Gannon Connection? Is Karl Rove really that stupid?

It's always fun to see a low-life scumbag's life fall apart -- especially when it involves politics. Stay tuned, ladies and gentlemen. It's happening to Jeff Gannon James Guckert.

But of course, there could be a logical explanation for this entire thing, and Guckert is just a victim of coicumstance (as Curly would say). I'm sure the White House will make an official statement soon.

This Day In History

This is actually from j-walkblog.com.  John and I were born on the same day.  His daughter was born the same year as my oldest daughter, which is actually wierder.  John is four years older than me.

On this day in history...

• 1909 - Hugh Beaumont (Ward Cleaver) is born.
• 1935 - Sonny Bono is born.
• 1952 - I am born.
• 1958 - Ice-T is born.
• 1959 - Fidel Castro is sworn in as Prime Minister of Cuba.
• 1964 - The Beatle's perform for the second time on The Ed Sullivan Show.
• 1982 - Thelonious Monk dies.
• 1986 - My daughter is born.
• 1990 - Ike Turner was sentenced to 4 years in prison on cocaine charges.
• 1996 - The Spreadsheet Page appears on the Web.

Bush-plan flaw: Cash would sit

Philadelphia Inquirer | 02/13/2005 | The Economy | Bush-plan flaw: Cash would sit

The biggest flaw in the Bush Social Security plan is that our contributions to our private fund won't be deposited for more than a year. Between 15 and 22 months is the number quoted.

Over a year. Is this insane? Do I really want my money to sit for over a year. Would any sane person do this? No.

The other flaw is that no one has addressed the "Wall Street Factor". This is my own term. The "Wall Street Factor" is the amount of money Wall Street will receive in fees for investing the trillions (that's a 1 with 12 zeros) of dollars that Social Security private investment accounts will generate (a year after its deducted from your paycheck).

I think that Wall Street should receive fees that are 15% greater than it costs them in labor to process the investments. Why should Wall Street receive a windfall from the change to Social Security?

My first comment spam

Well, I received my first comment spam today. I guess this means I have a 'real' web log.

I'm leaving anonymous comments enabled for now, but if I get more than one a week, I'll probably disable anonymous comments.

Stay tuned!

That site is very bad comparing to a few others. It gets many visitors due but that's about it. Feature selection and design are very very poor.I would revommend [snip]
--Posted by Anonymous to TechLog at 2/13/2005 07:59:19 PM

Microsoft Configuration Capture Utility (MPS_REPORTS)

Overview of the Microsoft Configuration Capture Utility (MPS_REPORTS)

Specialty editions
Different editions of MPS_REPORTS are available for different support scenarios. Each edition captures information and performs actions that are relevant to that specific support scenario. The following list contains the specialty editions of the MPS_REPORTS utility that are currently available and describes the support scenario that each edition is specific to:• Alliance Edition (Mpsrpt_alliance.exe): A general, all-purpose edition of the utility that captures a broad range of configuration information

• Cluster Edition (Mpsrpt_cluster.exe): An edition that captures information that is relevant to Windows Cluster Service issues
• Directory Services Edition (Mpsrpt_dirsvc.exe): An edition that captures information that is relevant to Directory Services issues
• Network Edition (Mpsrpt_network.exe): An edition that captures information that is relevant to networking issues
• Setup Edition (Mpsrpt_setupperf.exe): An edition that captures information that is relevant to setup and performance issues
• Software Update Services Edition (Mpsrpt_sus.exe): An edition that captures information that is relevant to Software Update Services issues
• SQL Edition (Mpsrpt_sql.exe): An edition that captures information that is relevant to SQL.
• MDAC Edition (Mpsrpt_mdac.exe): An edition that captures information that is relevant to MDAC.
• Exchange Edition (Mpsrpt_exchange.exe): An edition that captures information that is relevant to Microsoft Exchange.

Me Talk Pretty Some Day - George W. Bush's State of the Union Address

Its just going to be painful tonight.

Unlike any president in my lifetime, its physically painful to listen to Bush speak. Its not just the content. He has good writers, its just the delivery, facial expressions and overall delivery cause me to writhe in my seat. Actually, I usually get up and pace the floor.

I'm also still upset about this "political capital" he thinks he has. When you win by the smallest percentage victory in history, its not a mandate. Not by a long shot.

I suspect we will hear a lot about the successful elections in Iraq. I was surprised at the turnout and the lack of violence during the election, and I think the military should be commended.

Every Child Left Behind - when we have people bringing up "Intelligent Design" as science, something is wrong. ID was not a consideration before Bush was in office.

Halliburton - single source construction in Iraq. There are dozens of US engineering companies that can do this work, no one has explained what the cost/benefit of single sourcing it to Halliburton. The press is not challenging it and the White House (is Chaney still alive, I haven't heard from him or his doctors in a while) smothers any

White House Press Corp - what's with the Republican shill with Press credentials, not tied to any legit press, who tosses out softball questions and unsubstantiated (or downright wrong) information during the few press conferences at the White House. Also, Bush has had fewer press conferences than any modern president. I think this ties into the "Me Talk Pretty Some Day". Since he is so bad at public speaking, I think its a public service to minimize the number of speeches he subjects the population to.