b.cognosco
Where leaping to conclusions is my primary form of forward motion.
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Book Reviews
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FCC Says No to Independent Producers
Islam Unveiled
MozillaFirebird 0.6 - What Happened Here?
OneSuite.com Long Distance for 2.5 cents/min
123teleconference.com
The Slimy Devils
The Dead Zone
Saturday, June 14, 2003
Microsoft to Cease Internet Explorer for Macintosh
This announcement from Microsoft via WSJ Online (subscription required) regarding:
Microsoft to Cease Making Versions Of Explorer Browser for Macintosh[...] It makes more sense for Mac users to use Apple's Safari Web-browser, she said. Although still in beta testing, the browser has already gained attention for its speed and some of its features. [...]
FCC Says No to Independent Producers
There is something profoundly disturbing about the following phrase from FCC Rebuffs Bid by Producers On Independent TV Programs via WSJ Online (subscription required):
[...] As gatekeepers to the airwaves, the FCC said, the networks decide what goes on the air no matter who produces it. [...]
Whether or not the http://www.fcc.gov/">FCC ruling on requiring source-diversity in programming would have benefited the public or not is moot. What is important, at least to me, is the idea that the FCC has apparently decided that four commercial entities are rightly and justly entitled to act as "gatekeepers to the airwaves".
This is absurd. Ludicrous. Breathtakingly stupid at a scale rarely seen in human history. Gateway to the airwaves? The public airwaves? The radio spectrum that nature provided to all mankind? The FCC thinks that spectrum belongs -- lock, stock, and barrel -- to the four television networks?!
Who the hell is in charge up there?! How can they say that with a straight face? I feel like I'm back in the 1890's when John D. Rockefeller was running rampant over an ignorant populace of laborers.
Islam Unveiled
I am about one-third of the way through Islam Unveiled: Disturbing Questions about the World's Fastest-Growing Faith, by Robert Spencer.
The book is both enlightening in its detail and frightening in its implications. It has made explicit things which I suspected but had never bothered to study. I did not grasp the magnitude of the cultural battle that is brewing. It really is an East vs. West global conflict, and among my friends, family, and associates only the military historians actually seem to understand the full scope of the problem and what is at stake.
This book has just gone onto my gift list for friends and family. Anyone looking to understand what is in store for the next 30 years should take the time to read this book. Its exploration of Islamic culture exposes a fascinating problem and a potentially disastrous future.
Friday, June 13, 2003
MozillaFirebird 0.6 - What Happened Here?
I ran Mozilla phoenix 0.5 for quite some time as a secondary browser. It worked pretty well. Well enough that I actually ran it as my primary browser for a month or so after Opera released the gawdawful v.7.0. But then Opera released 7.11 (which should have been the first release) to fix most of the major fubars and it was better for most things. I still kept phoenix 0.5 loaded because it displayed some pages more accurately than Opera, and for compatibility testing.But now I've upgraded to the Firebird 0.6 release. What a crapper. Isn't there a sort of progression that's supposed to happen here, like each version gets a little better than the last, not worse? Maybe that's just my unenlightened view. In any case, getting Firebird to run is a pain, and the prefs screen that allows you to set all the default applications has disappeared. What?!
I can set Firebird as the default but Radio can't find it on start-up, and neither can anything else. And there is apparently no way to make it the default app for opening jpg files, xml files, or anything else (save worming my way through some Windoze file preference.)
Beta software. Ugh.
OneSuite.com Long Distance for 2.5 cents/min
While on the subject of office services -- I've been using a dial-around long distance service called OneSuite.com for the past several months. OneSuite offers domestic long distance rates of 2.5/2.9 cents per minute.Dial-around means that I have to dial an access number before placing my call. If I use a local access number the rate is 2.5 cents. If I use the OneSuite 800 number it's 2.9 cents -- still a good deal. Dial-around services can be a hassle, but OneSuite has features that minimize the hassle and add some things I like. First, all the account management is handled on-line via credit card. They claim to have 24-hour live customer service but I've never had any trouble with the on-line setup or account management features and have never tried it.
The system is pre-pay via credit card -- in other words, I buy a certain number of minutes in advance. I can buy as little as $5, or as much as $100. But by prepaying there is no chance that I can get stuck with some enormous long distance bill. I like that. When I started I bought $5 at a time. I have confidence in the service now and usually buy $20. That lasts me 4-6 weeks, and I call long distance all the time. The company also offers some pretty good international rates for certain countries.
Other features include:
-
ZipDial - eliminates the need for me to dial PIN numbers by pre-programming my primary phone numbers into the system in advance. Anytime I place a call from my residential or home-office phone I get immediately to the "Please enter the phone number" prompt. This lets me program the access number into my telephone SpeedDial, meaning I have only one extra button to push to make a long distance call.
RapiDial - basically speed dial within the LD service. Lets me preprogram up to 50 numbers and call them with a two-digit code
Message options -- I do not want to be delayed by messages on every call describing how many minutes I have remaining or how much credit I have left. I can turn these messages off.
Subaccounts - I haven't done this, but you can create up to three subaccounts so that people in your company, or family, get different PINS and can place calls, but it is all managed under one account.
The only downside is that I occasionally get poor line quality. I'd say about 1 in 10 calls have some sort of echo, static, or other irritating acoustic anomaly. Usually I just call back and it clears up. Sometimes it doesn't. It doesn't happen often enough to be a real problem considering I'm saving 50%-70% off my long distance bill each month. But it can still be irritating.
OneSuite.com. Recommended.
123teleconference.com
I just completed my first teleconference with 123teleconference.com. It seems to be a professional organization. I signed up for a credit-card account on-line. Within an hour a representative of the company called me to go over the account, answer any questions, and be sure I knew what to do.With the service I get a permanent 800 dial-in number, ad hoc access (no need to call and schedule a conference in advance), simple procedures, basic features (like mute for people on cell phones), and a rate of 9.9 cents per caller per minute.
I used the service for the first time this morning -- holding a three-way call with the pseudo project team for my Conversant intranet development. The service worked great -- excellent call quality, no problems getting in or out, and I had a confirmed invoice delivered via e-mail within minutes of completing the call.
This is the way outsourced office services should be -- convenient, quick, hassle-free. 123teleconference.com. Highly recommended.
Thursday, June 12, 2003
The Slimy Devils
WSJ Online (subscription required) reports that genetic research is shaking our concepts about "The Origin of Species", linking us more closely to slime molds. Is there anyone who's watched Congress on CSPAN for more than a half hour or so that doesn't already know that?
SCIENCE JOURNAL, by Sharon BegleyThe "tree of life" first outlined by Charles Darwin has undergone major overhauls. In fact, slime molds, mushrooms and other fungi are more closely related to people than they are to other plants. [WSJ Online]
The Dead Zone
I don't believe it. For the second time in 45 days my phone line is dead. Dammit! Thanks to BellSouth's stellar repair scheduling I have to wait until 7:00PM tomorrow to get it fixed. It's my home office number -- not the residential number -- same as last time. So I'm guessing whatever half-ass repair the guy did last time didn't hold. I used the phone at 5:30. Sometime between then and now it died. Fortunately, my DSL runs through the residential number.Sonafabitch. This kind of thing really gets me torqued. Think I want BellSouth to be my "One Solution" connectivity provider?! No freakin' way. Where's the wireless backbone?
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