Something broke Outlooks meeting organizer, again.

As a public service, I pass along some info from today's work activities.

I have discovered that something has changed everyone's Outlook calendar settings (in our organization, at least, some recent update perhaps?), without permission.

If you organize meetings using Outlook, you need to check and/or correct your settings, here is how..

In the Main outlook window, go to

Tools | Options

Then click on Calendar Options, and uncheck "Allow attendees to propose new times for meetings you organize"

Once this is unchecked, you can OK your way back out, and all new meetings should be safe from proposed changes (which have the un-intended consequence of wiping out the original meeting request, and any attachments or history included with them).

I have not found the exact cause of this change, and will continue to investigate, to prevent its recurrence.

--Mike--

Amazon EC2 design FAIL - What, Why, and How to fix it.

This is a rant, a screed, a diatribe, a scream in the wilderness hoping to call the adults in charge to notice a major design flaw in Amazon's otherwise excellent Elastic Cloud Computing service, know as EC2 for short.

However, unlike most rants, screeds, etc... I offer a reasonable and easy to implement solution which should work well for all concerned.

What EC2 is:
EC2 lets you create virtual servers based on their hardware and networks. It's fast, reliable, and pretty flexible when it comes to getting far more computing resources in short notice than would even be possible for a small company to arrange, let alone finance, because you can pay by the hour of computing time, and the megabyte of disk storage.

Amazon offers a wide variety of Linux and Microsoft operating systems to run within these virtual servers, and they make it easy to provision new machines, or "instances".

My story:
Yesterday, I was at work, and for whatever reason, I couldn't find the instance of Windows Media Streaming I had last used on Amazon EC2 about 6 months ago that I needed for a demo. With real servers, it's obvious when you have boxes to look at, hopefully all nicely labeled, but since virtual servers don't actually take up physical space in the office, they end up just like any other misplaced computer file.

I then proceeded to create a new one from scratch. The setup wasn't that long, but my work day because a long one while I got everything set. It got worse when I figured out that the Hardware Streaming Box we were going to use wasn't using the same protocol I had previously used. I got all that sorted out about midnight, but then found out something else was amiss.  I thought it could be either the streaming box, or the virtual server that was mis-configured, so I created a virtual server in our own local network (using VMware) to divide the problem and more accurately place blame. At about 6 AM I had proof that it was the streaming box, and it had a virus. It needed to be reset to factory standards... I waited for our supplier to call back to get the proper procedure for doing so, and got everything working by 10 AM today. (Now a 26 hour work day).

I then proceeded to help everyone else test out their parts of the demo, and showed them how everything worked with the box, Amazon, Windows, etc... I was done after lunch at about 1:30PM.  I was taking care of putting the hardware away, cleaning up my office, etc... when I shut down the Virtual Server. I was looking at the configuration of it, and it seemed to be stuck in the process of shutting down (terminating) far longer than expected.

Then I couldn't find it!  (Deja vue)

It was about 15 minutes later that I found out what had happened.... Amazon threw my newly configured virtual machine away, assuming I no longer wanted it, merely because I turned it off (using the Windows Shutdown command) to save the compute costs while I wasn't using it. My reaction was one of surprise and sadness, and resignation to an even longer work shift  that was now like to stretch from 8AM to 5 PM the next day.

I'm upset about this, I understand how someone on the product team might have justified using the word Terminate to signify deleting a server, and someone else defended the decision to delete them by default, but it's not the way people use computers.

How you can relate:
Imagine if the mere act of turning off your desktop machine resulted in its disappearance and the need to set up a new one, no matter how inexpensive. This is the problem I faced.  I invested hours of time getting everything working just right, and testing it.... I had to spend another 3 hours to do it all over again.


How to fix it:
Now... here's my message to the folks who control the design of this system...

You have added a "termination prevention" system, which helps to alleveiate the problem, if the user has a clear understanding of the NON-STANDARD use of the word termination in this context. This kludge of a fix tells me that the product managers don't quite have a good enough grasp of how things work.

A far better fix, one that fits with far less ambiguity, and far less pain for all involved, is to use the standard word DELETE when describing the act of removing a virtual machine from existence.

Deletion of a virtual machine, or set of files should NEVER happen merely because a virtual machine powered itself down. It should ALWAYS and ONLY be the result of a positive direct action at the request of a user, who then gets a message warning them of the full implications of their actions before giving their final confirmation of the action.

Summary:
Please take this in the spirit with which it is intended, as CONSTRUCTIVE criticism, and a possible fix.

You'll save all of your new users having to go through this painful experience, and have a better product to boot.

Update: As you can see in the comments, this design fail is making a hole for others to fill.

Bye Bye Facebook

I've decided to kill my Facebook account. It's too much evil in one spot.

I'll miss it... like I miss all of the stupid things I used to do in my youth, but now know better than to do.

More on why Google sucks

Google forces you to try to figure out keywords unique to the subjects you are looking for. This doesn't always work, and is especially hard to use for conversations that are non-technical and thus have the least amount of topic-specific jargon to latch on to. 

The next great leap will be to figure out the subjects of text, so that you can match on multiple areas of interest, and explore the intersections.

Why virus scanners are doomed to fail

Intent is very important, for example... spam is email with an intention to push a product. Malware and trojan horses are similar in intent, but even more malicious. 

The user of a computer can not tell what the intent of the author is... thus it's necessary to provide a mechanism for limiting the scope and actions of that program, in an effort to help with that judgement.

The current group of operating systems do not provide a way to limit the scope and environment of a program prior to its execution, to the ordinary user. 

Virus scanners all assume that programs can be examined and found not to be of ill intent merely by checking them against some arbitrary lists. This can be seen to be a losing battle when viewed from this perspective.

Princeton Premier - Spam De Jure

In today's email...

Dear Mike,

It is my pleasure to inform you that you are being considered for inclusion into the 2009-2010 Princeton Premier Business Leaders and Professionals Honors Edition section of the registry.

The 2009-2010 edition of the registry will include biographies of the world's most accomplished individuals. Recognition of this kind is an honor shared by thousands of executives and professionals throughout the world each year. Inclusion is considered by many as the single highest mark of achievement.

You may access our application form using the following link:

xxxxx (link removed)

Upon final confirmation, you will be listed among other accomplished individuals in the Princeton Premier Registry.

For accuracy and publication deadlines, please complete your application form and return it to us within five business days.

There is no cost to be included in the registry.

If you've already received this email from us, there is no need to respond again.

This email serves as our final invitation to potential members who have not yet responded.

On behalf of the Executive Publisher, we wish you continued success.

Sincerely,
Jason Harris

Managing Director
Princeton Premier

Bad word of the day - Webinar

I recently decided to try out a Webinar offered by Dr Dobbs, it was "on demand" which was good because that meant it wasn't somewhere off in the mysterious future where I might not get to attend... score +1.

They made me register and give a ton of marketing information... score -1 

They spent the first 1/2 minute explaing how to use the live features... score -1

They didn't edit down the presentation... score -1

Three strikes and they're out!

Running from the Coyote

My Around the Coyote submission was rejected. 8(

I've decided to see who else is writing about the same thing.

It seems to be a lot smaller this year.

DNS -- It's worse than I thought - Technical version

As most of you know, DNS (Domain Name Service) is the system by which names such as www.apcu.org get translated into numbers that the computer can use to connect to systems on the internet.

There is a very deep and serious flaw in design of DNS which affects virtually everyone, which was recently discovered. The technical details of this flaw are still being kept secret, but it has been disclosed that part of it involves the nature of requests from DNS clients when they do a "recursive" lookup. Here's a link that explains the details: http://www.inetdaemon.com/tutorials/internet/dns/recursive.shtml

It appears that if you know what someone is asking for, you can answer their next question, even if you're not supposed to. This means that you can't trust the answers from your DNS if it happens to be one of the vulnerable ones. (The ones that haven't been patched yet)

The situation is complicated, and made worse by the NAT (Network Address Translation) that we all use to share an internet connection among more than one computer. All of those Linksys, Belkin, Dlink, etc… devices we bought make it easier to guess the next question… if your DNS is behind one of them. This means that anyone with a Windows Domain, or Linux Server who has their own DNS now has to consider moving the DNS back outside the NAT… which isn't a nice prospect.

The DNS clients built into ALL of our PCs need to be updated as well. This means doing Windows Updates for ALL of your PCs

Fortunately, there is a tool to help you test your system (not just your DNS, but the whole chain) to see how you will fare (it's not a guarantee, but a guideline) available online at:

http://www.doxpara.com/

It's on the right side of the screen… conviniently labeled "Check My DNS".

It turns out I'm ok at home because ComCast has patched the servers I use… but I've got a ton of work to do at work.

There will be full public disclosure of the vulnerablity on August 6, 2008. I strongly urge you to use this time to get ALL of your systems tested and patched appropriately before the hackers of the world learn the details.

I'll be spending a lot of time on this… and so will most of you, it's far better to do it now than to have to clean up a mess afterwards. (When you can't trust your DNS to get the patches, etc!)

Python sucks!

All I want to do is to take a string, and pull the first character off of it in a function....

like this:

def pullchar(s):
"""pull a single character from the front of a string"""
c = s[0]
s = s[1::]
return c

Can python do this? Not really...

Why? Because there doesn't seem to be any way to pass a variable to a function...

WTF?

National Guard not allowed to Guard our Nation

How ironic:

Six to eight gunmen — possibly heading for Mexico with drug money — approached a group of Tennessee National Guard troops at an overnight observation post Jan. 3 on the U.S. side of the Arizona-Mexico border. No one fired a shot, and the confrontation ended when American troops retreated to contact the Border Patrol. The gunmen then fled into Mexico.

But the incident made some National Guard commanders nervous enough to move up training dates for handling hostage situations. And some lawmakers have questioned why the rules prohibit soldiers from opening fire unless they are fired upon.

To summarize... the National Guard is not allowed to actually Guard our Nation. We're repeating VietNam.... in Arizona????

Ugh
--Mike--

My HP DV5030US woes continue

LaptopJenny is still waiting for the repair... despite being promised back to me by December 6, 2006. It's the third display failure, exact same symptoms:

• Vertical stripe on the left edge which makes it look like the sync isn't quite right
• Position and pressure sensitivty in the upper left corner of the frame outside the display
• Total loss of video... resulting in vertical striped wallpaper.

I've had this laptop for a little less than a year... a fact which HP insists on pointing out everytime they try to "upsell" me extended warranty coverage (which won't cover the display if (when!) it breaks again).

I've found out that the reason for the delay is a shortage of the part required for the repair. I'm assuming its a mechanical design problem causing the LCD module to break from stress... but I'm no mechanical engineer... so I might be wrong.

I spent about $1500... got about 3 months real use out of it... before losing everything... twice! (HP says that my data is safe... but reformats it every time).

I'm going to save my pennies and get an Acer... they used to be shit in the 80s... but seem to deliver good bang for the bucks these days.

HP Pavilion DV5030US - Dead for the 3rd time!

Ugh... just as I was getting back into the swing of things, LaptopJenny (an HP Pavilion DV5030US notebook) died again!
I shipped it for repair on the 20th of last month... looks like I get to do it again...

Here's what the my Windows desktop looks like right now.... not very useful:





Here's what it's supposed to look like (if you push in the upper left corner, it works until you let go)



I'm hoping I get some other option than repair again!

How I defended science, and saved the day

There I was, reading my morning list of blogs, using the "open in tabs" feature of FireFox, when I got to the BoingBoing entry titled Eat Less, Breath More, Lose Weight. It was an excerpt of an article by Richard A. Muller, entitled The Physics of Gluttony which I repeat here:

Let me address this issue by invoking another physics principle: conservation of mass. More specifically, let me talk about the conservation of carbon atoms. When you digest food, its carbon atoms enter your blood. Unless they are expelled from your body, they add to your weight. But here is the salient observation: the only effective way your body has to get rid of digested carbon is to combine it with oxygen to form carbon dioxide, and then expel it through your lungs. Unless you breathe out the carbon, you gain weight.



Here are some numbers, taken from books on exercise physiology. Fat, protein, and sugar all contain about 0.1 gram of carbon per food calorie consumed. So if you digest 2,000 calories of food (a typical daily diet for adults) then you take in about 200 grams of carbon. At rest, each breath exhales about 0.5 liter of air containing about 1 percent carbon, for about five milligrams per breath. After a day at 12 breaths per minute, you get rid of about 120 grams of carbon. That’s less than you ate, so you’ll gain weight.

The gross scale of oversimplification was immediately apparent to me, and had me in a tizzy!

The concept was simple, too simple. While simplifcations like this have appeal to the masses, but are dangerous, especially when they are as wrong as this one. I couldn't let something like this go unchecked. I immediately mobilized my forces, and put on my superblogger cape to defend science!

I immediately started to Google around to build a response. My first, and correct, suspicion was that Urea, a major component of urine, was an organic compound. Since all organic compounds, by definition, contain carbon, I knew I was safe. I then proceeded to fill in the details. I started to work on the other end of things. I followed the trail to feces, which has a very high carbon content as well.

Still, it seemed that it might actually be satire... and I had to be sure. I followed the links back a few more steps, and actually read the original article, quickly calmed down when he stated:

This month I want to talk about diet and exercise for weight loss, and I'm going to oversimplify on purpose. Consider a spherical physicist….

so... it was intended as satire after all... whew! Time to put the superblogger cape away, and calm back down!

So, instead of my saving humanity, you instead get a view of the thought processes of a middle aged self described "technologist" living in the midwest. I'm very glad I edited this thing before I posted, and I'm sure you, gentle reader, are as well. Thanks for following me on my morning adventure. Join me at another time when I race off to type a blog and save humanity. 8)

Via BoingBoing, and MIT Technology Review and this blog.