Here’s an interesting article on Salon about the lack of good jobs in the technology sector (thanks /.). Perhaps I’m lucky to live in Pittsburgh, where the tech industry isn’t doing too bad. I left a fulltime job last fall, and I’ve had fairly consistent consulting work since, and I’ve even turned down an offer for a full-time job. Another friend just got a new job in the industry, and I know a few other folks who are entertaining offers. Perhaps life is okay for us because, even though most of us have worked almost exclusively on web-based projects, our knowledge base is wide enough to allow us find work outside the web (case in point–I was doing ERP system work for awhile–incredibly unglamorous, but it pays well). Or, perhaps some of the people interviewed for articles like this aren’t very good at what they do? I doubt that, and I know the market is bad, bad, bad in other cities. Pittsburgh isn’t so bad after all….

Posted on 14 March 2003

Think Dubya is just carrying out his daddy’s plan by not playing nice with the United Nations? Think again. Bush Sr has different ideas.

Posted on 14 March 2003

Shonky: Australian slang. Of dubious origin.

Posted on 12 March 2003

I forgot to mention this last week. So, you no doubt have heard of the anti-war protesters who are going to Iraq to act as human shields to attempt to stop the US from attacking. Well, it seems the Iraqi government is telling these folks where they can and can’t go to carry out the business of being a human shield. Seems the government would prefer that they shield strategic targets (military bases, power plants, etc) instead of innocent civilians. And it seems the human shields don’t like the Iraqi government telling them what to do, so they’re packing their bags and leaving.

Posted on 12 March 2003

The fight over a war in Iraq has taken a new turn. The US say it has new evidence of Iraq’s possession of undeclared weapons (cluster bombs, to be exact) that are in violation of the UN resolution. Of course, the French and Russians are stonewalling again, saying they will not vote for any resolution authorizing the use of force (which is odd, since they voted for this last year). But that’s not the interesting part. The interesting game is the one the UN inspectors are playing.

I find it hard to believe that the inspectors (especially the lead inspectors) are approaching their jobs without political bias. What do I mean? Well, first, let’s look at what the US is doing. They are taking any shred of evidence (or non-evidence) of Iraqi noncompliance and making it a rally cry in the UN. The inspectors are doing the same thing on the other side of the political fence. Hans Blix will point out some bit of non-compliance by the Iraqis, then quickly change the subject and say how cooperative they’ve been. Read any interview with the man, and he will quickly gloss over the evidence.

Another point. Blix and the UN have repreatedly asked Iraq to produce documentation detailing the supposed destruction of stores of chemical weapons, but Iraq has claimed they don’t have that information. Please. This country keeps track of who has satellite TV, but they don’t record something like destroying hundreds of tons of anthrax? But the inspectors don’t seemed phased by this, instead proudly proclaiming Iraq is making huge strides in sharing information.

I’m not for this war. I want to see this resolved peacefully. But I also want the UN to do its job honestly and correctly. The inspectors should not be viewing the situation in Iraq through any political filters–their job is to find WMD stores or proof that they were destroyed. Nothing more, nothing less.

Posted on 10 March 2003

Various interesting items this morning…..

First, a little politics from home. This is an interesting story on several levels. First…Ed Rendell tries to look like a conservative by introducing the first part of his state budget plan, which includes tax cuts and massive spending cuts. The Republicans in the state congress then thought they could corner the governor by quickly passing the budget with very little debate on the house floor. Of course, Rendell will introduce part 2 of the budget in a week or so, and no doubt it will include spending measures, and it will be doubtful that the Republicans will pass it so quickly, thereby assuring the cuts but limiting the spending. Both sides are trying a bit of sleight of hand, and it won’t work for either of them…..Rendell can veto part one if/when it passes (at some political expensive, however, since it remains primarliy unchanged by the legislature), and the Republicans won’t end the end get what they want either.

Baby Theory

Jen and I started Lamaze classes last night. I actually found it very interesting, and somewhat surprising. Very information, and very positive toward the natural childbirth experience. There was lots of video, and the images of women lying in bed all day waiting for labour to end are nowhere to be found. They are advocating a woman’s very active part in the birth process, and that’s a really positive thing. And while they weren’t advocating a Bradley Method-style labour, they certainly didn’t mention drugs as the first choice to solve a painful delivery.

War

It looks like we’re really heading down that road. I’m no peacenik, but I don’t favor the US going at this alone. Why? Because we’ll be stuck in the process of nation-building on our own, which will further anger Muslim militants who see us as power-hunger infidels. Interesting, Bush seems to be breaking a campaign promise by committing the US to stay in Iraq and set up a new government. I support something along the lines of the new British or Canadian proposals, which give Iraq a bit more time, and set a hard deadline. If they can get the entire Security Council to sign on (highly doubtful), the US will not have to act alone. Again, I’d rather see this get resolved diplomatically, but what it going on right now is hardly diplomacy…France and Germany are merely stalling, and not putting any further pressure on Iraq to comply.

Posted on 7 March 2003

In case any of you really want to know what I was thinking on February 24, the monthly archiving feature is now up and running. See the links in the righthand sidebar. Enjoy.

Posted on 5 March 2003

Wow. Technology news makes CNN. A vulnerability in Sendmail could allow users to get root access to a system. The flaw was discovered yesterday by ISS, and the group was quick to point out that there wasn’t any know exploit for the bug.

I watched this play out on the Bugtraq list, and it was truly amazing how quickly the vendors responded. Within an our of the post by ISS about the exploit, there were posts indicating that patches were available for most OS distributions. Part of this was due, it seems, from our government. The Department of Homeland Security coordinated the release of the exploit with ISS to allow the vendors time to get a patch complete (which makes good sense to me). According to the CNET article, the bug was found mid-January, and since there wasn’t a known exploit for it, DHS decided to allow the vendors to work without a public announcement (which would then give crackers a chance to find an exploit. Hopefully this will be model of how bugs are handled in the future (though we could do without big brother calling the shots).

Posted on 5 March 2003

I think this is a nifty idea. Theatre groups across the world are performing Aristophanes Lysistrata as an anti-war protest (Lysistrata is probably the oldest piece of anti-war literature). Interestingly (and expectedly) there is a backlash against it, with many people claiming that artists shouldn’t have an opinion about the situation in Iraq. Gee, that’s a real American thought. Suddenly only certain people can have opinions (like politicians and people who agree with your cause). All we need is someone to kill one of the players, and we’ll be a step closer to resembling a country like Iraq where free speech is just a dream.

Why has peace suddenly become anti-American? And riddle me this: why, if the administration is attacking Iraq to protect America and free the Iraqi people from a tyrant, are we passively sitting around while North Korea does everything in its power to provoke us (I’m certainly not advocating a war in Korea, but as far as tyrannical governments go, North Korea is up at the top of the list). I read an interesting little quote on Plastic yesterday (and I don’t remember where so I can’t link to it)….a smart government gives its people the illusion of free speech until it’s a detriment to its cause. I don’t expect America to slip into a police state anytime soon, but it’s obvious that at least a few people think free speech is a option, not a commodity.

Posted on 4 March 2003

Carlos Sainz has won the first Rally of Turkey, beating Richard Burns and Francois Duval. Sainz took the lead when Harri Rovanpera had technical difficulties on day two, and never looked back. Citroen had a good showing, with Colin McCrae taking fourth, and no doubt Seb Loeb would have finished in the points as well had he not gotten, erm, lost on the road section between stages on day one.

So what have we learned? Well, first, I was certainly a bit hasty writing Ford off in my pre-season notes. Markko Martin would have been competing for a podium had he not had transmission issues on day one, and Duval had a fine rally, finishing third. I fully expect to see either Duval or Martin on the top step of the podium at one event (if not more) this year. Citroen has moved into position to really compete for the maker’s championship, with the Xsara WRC proving to be extremely reliable on what should be the roughest event of the championship. Citroen should be able to compete with Peugeot in New Zealand (which is generally a very fast loose surface rally) giving them an edge going into the next spell of rougher rallies (Greece and Cyprus). Peugeot wishes they could do this one over. Though Burns took second, Gronholm barely squeaked into the points in ninth, clearly disappointed with the rally. Gilles Panizzi finished fifth (a fantastic event for the tarmac specialist), but alas, since he was in a customer car, he wasn’t nominated for maker’s points. Poor, poor Subaru. Petter Solberg was a victim of a spin on day one, and Tommi Makinen never found his groove, though at least he finished in the points in eighth. Toni Gardemeister of Skoda had a fine event, finishing seventh, and pulling ahead of Hyundai in the maker’s championship. More importantly for the team, Skoda has scored maker’s points in every rally this season. Hyundai started the event well, with Freddy Loix and Armin Schwarz both flying on day one, but the lack of testing caught up them, and neither finished in the points.

So, what’s next? Off to the fast, smooth roads of New Zealand, where Gronholm hopes to get this championship defense back on track.

Posted on 2 March 2003