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THE VIEW FROM CHAOS MANOR

View 132 December 18 - 24, 2000

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This is a day book. It's not all that well edited. I try to keep this up daily, but sometimes I can't. I'll keep trying. See also the monthly COMPUTING AT CHAOS MANOR column, 4,000 - 7,000 words, depending.  (Older columns here.) For more on what this place is about, please go to the VIEW PAGE.

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If you want to PAY FOR THIS there are problems, but I keep the latest HERE. I'm trying. MY THANKS to all of you who sent money.  Some of you went to a lot of trouble to send money from overseas. Thank you! There are also some new payment methods. I am preparing a special (electronic) mailing to all those who paid: there will be a couple of these. I am also toying with the notion of a subscriber section of the page. LET ME KNOW your thoughts.
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Monday  December 18, 2000

Close to the end for nominations for the Orchids and Onions Parade. I'll write that first week of January.

Spent the weekend throwing stuff away. Including a rat's nest of cables. So half an hour ago Roberta needed a Mac serial cable to attach to her printer. Why not? But I am not going to climb in that dumpster to find one. Tomorrow we will but a new one.

It's amazing how much STUFF I managed to get rid of. With the help of a neighbor boy we borrowed. I found him a pile of old Star Trek tech manuals and art books, and a stack of Magic The Gathering cards I had and no longer have any interest in. As well as money. So he came out pretty well. And I have filled the dumpster, and there is much more to go. Plus there is a huge stack of boxes of books that I will give to the new branch library opening up in a few weeks. And another couple of boxes of STUFF to go to the local science fiction club. And that's for starters.

Was recovering from my cold. The dust has managed to stop up my head again, not a surprise. No way to clean up and go through old book shelves without encountering dust. And dust, and dust. 

Long hike today. And there are actually some empty shelves around my desk. Of course the desk is under 6 feet of paper. I have started in the far corners and I am working inwards. And the back room, making room back there for stuff that can age, by throwing out the stuff that has been aging for years. If I haven't looked at it in a year, it goes, with exception of a few books and some installation software disks. And STILL the place is full of clutter. And STILL. Sigh.

I see Jessie Jackson intends to celebrate the inauguration by demonstrating over the illegitimacy of the new President. Why not? But whose legitimacy he will bring into question may not be as clear to me as it seems to be to him.

 

There is much mail on the public school issue and I will try to get it up with comments shortly. And it sure is nice to see some empty shelf space. And I haven't got started good, either...


That Everquest game can generate some pretty strong feelings. A young friend of mine was reduced to tears when some older man (halfway across the country, actually; and of course she never will know his actual name) caused her to be killed and lose about a week of experience (he pulled a Hill Giant to her location and being a Monk was able to feign death and cause it to lose interest in him so it attacked, well, actually me, and my little friend tried to rescue me. She did, too, but that got her killed, which cost her a lot because she'd been killed at that level before. But the player was really after her, because of some misunderstanding they had. Pure bad luck he dumped it on me because she could have got away if she hadn't tried to save me.) 

Actually, that says quite a bit, that a high school girl could get a war veteran angry enough at her to cost her about a week's experience -- and that she'd take that loss to help me. It does make one wonder about these games and the emotions they generate. Some generous, some not so much so. I suppose my little friend was at fault (with respect to this man) although she didn't know it at the time; she thought she was being imposed on. Now her mother is going to make her apologize assuming she can locate the chap, because she used fairly strong language when he laughed at her distress at being killed and losing all the time she'd put in.

Things mean more to the young, I think. Experience is more intense, and they don't have the control over their emotions and behavior that they ought to have. Of course that is a part of growing up, to learn self control, and perhaps it is better that these lessons be learned in a virtual world, where she can't REALLY be killed by someone who lost his temper. Sure managed to spoil her evening, though. And I had some conversation with the chap who caused it, and he's sorry too. A wasted evening all around for everyone except me: novelists never find such experiences a waste of time...

 

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Tuesday, December 19, 2000

Of course I will now have to go to Fry's to buy a cable to replace one I threw away Sunday afternoon. So it goes.

I do get interesting hate mail. Well, sort of interesting.

But part of it does have an interesting reference:

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/bluesky_exnews/20001219_xex_why_iraqs_bu.shtml 

Which is about Iraq using Playstations to build a supercomputer. We have, of course in the US starting with the SETI project developed the capability to build distributed supercomputers of great power Where will all this end?


Of course it is 80 degrees wit bright sunshine outside. Merry Christmas.

 

 

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Wednesday, December 20, 2000

The line at Fry's was so long yesterday that I just left. I hadn't found the cable I needed. There probably isn't one left in all this world.

It's still 80 Degrees. And of course I bought myself an elegant teapot to make hot tea for the cold weather...

We built a new 1066 MHz Pentium III last night, for the Media Labs. Basically no problems. Of course it is named Hastings.

Long ago I spent an evening looking at "Jennycam" and I must have hit it at the right time because I didn't see any porno, but there was a diary and some interesting introspection. She actually could have had a reasonable career as a writer, given a couple of years' work to learn the trade. Went back today for some reason, and it's no more than a porno site, probably without Jenny who I presume sold the site name and I hope is living happily ever after. 

 

Lots of new mail. I'll try to get it posted shortly. Including "secrets" for ME users.  

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Thursday, December 21, 2000

WINTERSET

Yesterday we had programmers, Ron Seradian from APC (a cool UPS company), Eric and Mark from Alex's outfit boring holes and stringing wires, two of the boys down, and a neighbor girl calling about an Everquest problem and it's my fault she is playing the game. Sigh. 

Mark and Eric are crawling around in the attic pulling Ethernet Level 5 cable to replace the -- are you ready? -- ARCnet and RS-232 cables that were put in when we built the upstairs part of Chaos Manor. As well as a couple of new phone lines of course. As a consequence I missed the fact that an ftp failure left Currentmail at zero bytes. And boy did I get letters on that. Anyway, 'tis fixed now and thanks for the reminders.

[Later addition: I am informed that Ethernet Level 5 is WRONG, WRONG, WRONG! See MAIL. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.]]

And now for something serious:

Your friend Robert Thompson has posted an alarming article

concerning new HD standards that provide copy protection. There'd

be NO copying your own data from a backup tape to one of these

new drives. Even Microsoft is appalled. Only a huge end-user

outcry can stop this nonsense.

http://www.ttgnet.com/rbt/daynotes/2000/20001218.html 

warmest holiday greetings!

JIm

To which I can only say AAAARRRRGBGGHHH!. At least I have a lead for my onions section of next month's column.

I have other mail on this and I am composing a serious reply.

 

 

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Friday, December 22, 2000

Don't forget the annual ORCHIDS AND ONIONS Parade is coming up. Nominations encouraged.

 

Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa Short letter informing me of the difference between Level 5 and Category 5, and a long reply on the difference between a Day Book and a professional publication over in MAIL  In fact the whole discussion ends up interesting. As does another on that NASA Earth at Night photo

And from Clark Meyer:

Encarta 99 broken by newer OS/plug- ins and MS obligations from Dr. Keyboard Daynotes Gang http://web2279.vs.netbenefit.co.uk/ubb/Forum3/HTML/000036.html 

 

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Saturday, December 23, 2000

The d key is sticking. This programmable keyboard is neat and fortunately I have another, so I will substitute shortly. A note:

Dr. Pournelle,

I have found this Net resource to consistently find the lowest priced hardware and software at the most reasonable shipping charges. Plus, no sales tax, no driving, and no Fry's.

http://www.pricewatch.com/ 

Don McArthur http://www.mcarthurweb.com

For myself I have found that Electronic City on Burbank Blvd. in Burbank is the right place to go. It has been there a long time. They don't have everything, but what they do have is high quality and actually cheaper than Fry's. Amazing. I do like to look at stuff before I buy it. 

And Merry Christmas to all.

 

 

 

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Sunday, Christmas EVE, 2000

Merry Christmas, and may God bless you all.

 

We all hear the first verse of this every year. We generally do not hear the rest.

  

 O ye, beneath life's crushing load,
  
whose forms are bending low,
 
Who toil along the climbing way
  
with painful steps and slow,

 Look now! For glad and golden hours
  
come swiftly on the wing:
 
O rest beside the weary road,
  
and hear the angels sing!

   Yet with the woes of sin and strife,
    
the world has suffered long
 
Beneath the heavenly strain have rolled
    
two thousand years of wrong;

  And man, at war with man, hears not
    
the tidings that they bring;
 
O hush the noise, ye men of strife,
    
and hear the angels sing!

 

 

 

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