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Tech Adobe, A rant
 I have enjoyed using Flash for quite a while. Mostly I use it to make movies for work, but have been playing around with it lately to make more creative animations. So, when I heard the news that Microsoft Agrees With Apple And Google: “The Future Of The Web Is HTML5", I was a bit dismayed. Now I have long believed that flash was wrong for creating websites, but thought it would remain the standard for video and games. And, I believe that will still be true for a while. if you look at the demo page for html5, you will see that most of the demos are using things useful for building interactive websites, but not any of them demonstrate animation created by HTML5. Even the stuff that will eventually be used to create online games is pretty crude yet. Not sure what the Canvas demo does, since I couldn't get it to load with any of the 3 browsers I tried. So, I think we are a ways yet from animation and online games with HTML5. However, given my recent experiences with Adobe, I am thinking about learning HTML5 now anyway, even though I will be much more limited in what I can do, because I am sick of Adobe. Adobe Tech Support sucks! Not to mention their programs are getting to be so bulky and buggy they are painful to use. My Adobe saga: Part 1:Saving a pdf without comments.I thought this was pretty straightforward, but I had to repeat what I was trying to do 4 times before they gave me a solution. All I was trying to do was to hide/get rid of the comments in a pdf that was being sent in an email. They gave me solutions for how to use comments for an email review, told me how to hide comments from my current view, etc. They even wanted me to send a pdf with comments in it, because that was somehow going to help them understand what I wanted. Hello, you are Adobe, surely you have a pdf with comments in it laying around on your desktop?!? Finally, after 6 emails from Adobe, they gave me the solution. For those curious, here is the highly intuitive solution: Go To Advanced-> PDF Optomizer->Discard User Data->Check the Tab Discard All Comments , forms and multimedia.-> Click Ok. Now save this pdf with a different name, and you can send your pdf itinerary to your boss, without your comments about meeting your colleagues after the meeting for drinks. Are we really the only people who find this useful? Part 2:Upgrading the Organizer in AcrobatMy boss upgraded from Acrobat 8 to Acrobat 9. When he tried to open the organizer in Acrobat 9, the window was missing, and it was apparent from the menu that nothing from Acrobat 8 had been moved over. I sent in an email request for help, but was told this was not an installation issue, and I needed to have bronze support. I tried calling them, spent eons on hold, just to have them tell me, once again, that this was not an installation issue so I needed to pay for support. Not an installation issue? I installed the software, and it didn't work, and didn't import stuff from the last version. How can this be anything except an installation issue?!? So, I went off in search of paid support. Buying support from Adobe is convoluted, especially if you have a volume license. Supposedly there are support packages, where you get so many support calls per year, or maybe some number of support calls, but I never did figure this out. Nor did I figure out what bronze support is. Since there is a new version of Adobe products coming out, I decided it was probably best to just buy one support instance, especially since given the cost of my time doing research trying to figure this shit out, it would probably be cheaper to pay by the instance anyway. So, I spent another 2 hours on the phone, mostly on hold, during which I solved the missing Organizer window problem without any help from Adobe. When they told me the import problem wasn't an installation issue, I said fine, I'll pay. They ended up not charging me, although they lectured me on how this was an Acrobat 8 issue (since I was trying to export from Acrobat 8), so next time they would charge me. Like what, I didn't buy Acrobat 8 from them, and the reason I was trying to export was to have a WORKING INSTALLATION of Acrobat 9? WTF? But then, in the end, they told me it was impossible. You cannot get your Organizer settings from Acrobat 8 to Acrobat 9. I filed a bug report. I had already sent a letter to the CEO complaining about their tech support, but maybe I should send him an addendum? Adobe, A rant ~ Comments: 1
Red Herrings
Health, Politics, MyRamblings, Tech, Scienceby Maria on 13 Apr 2010 - 21:10  Herring (Kippered) I very much enjoyed the TED talk by Michael Specter on the danger of science denial. His main point is that we will continue to do real damage to our planet and our communities, if we continue to ignore what science tells us. His two main examples are the trend to not immunize because of the supposed link between autism and immunizations, and frankofoods, iow, genetically modified foods. I think both of these cases demonstrate the publics tendency to take a scary finding, latch onto the first thing that comes along to blame, and then ignoring science and facts and beat the hell out of the red herring. In the case of the autism and immunizations, study after study has shown there is no link. But the original study, however misguided, did demonstrate that we need to continue to put pressure on manufacturers and the government to ensure that vaccines are safe to use, as some things were brought up that were questionable. We need to learn to accept science and facts when they become undoubtable, stop beating a dead horse, and look to new places for answers. That second point is very important. There is much money and time now being spent trying to convince parents that autism is caused by immunizations, money that should be spent on coming up with the actual causes and cures to autism. Not to mention this misguidedness is causing a crisis in immunization that could cause many diseases that we have not seen in decades to return to the United States. If you are unconvinced that immunizations do not cause autism, check out this pdf from immunize.org. The second issue, genetically modified foods, is very interesting. In this case, the red herring is GMO's themselves. Although more research is needed, so far, it appears that the insertion of new genes does not, by itself, change the plant in a negative way. In Specter's talk he mentioned the noble ideas about adding vitamin A in rice and adding protein and vitamins in cassava, using genetic modification. He did not mention anything about adding resistance to pesticides or insecticides. These are the truly scary things, the things we should be up in arms about. The movie Monsanto's World is extremely interesting, and brings to mind the things we need to be extremely concerned about. First and foremost, are the ties between government and corporations. Monsanto has become a scary monopoly because the US government let it happen, and, in fact, encouraged it to happen. And, it can, and probably has, happened in other industries as well. It is the ties between industry and government that has caused the scientific data to not be scrutinized as it should be. Check out the wikipedia article about Monsanto, under Public officials formerly employed by Monsanto. Which brings up and interesting question. Who should be in charge of government agencies that oversee industries? In many cases, it seems the government decides that people from industry are the best choice, since they would presumably know the most about that particular industry. But, they also have the hardest time separating themselves from the corporations they use to be a part of, and present a real conflict of interest. Time after time, in many different industries, government has failed to enforce or enact the regulations it should in the interest of public safety, because of the ties with corporations. The other thing that we should be up in arms about is the abuse of patent law by Monsanto. Monsanto has used patent law to bully farmers, so that it now controls most of the U.S. corn and soy seed market, according to the non-profit Center for Food Safety. And there is no doubt that Monsanto and its connections in government have worked hard to suppress scientific evidence that its products are not as harmless as it claims. But, you shouldn't take my word on this, do your research. So, while I agree with Specter about there being good that can come from genetic modification, and while at its root, it is not much different from the modifications we have been making to animals and plants for hundreds of thousands of years by breeding, there is still some very scary stuff going on in the genetic modification industry, and most of it has to do with the corporation that controls a very large portion of the seed market, Monsanto, and allows farmers to completely douse their fields with herbicides and/or insecticides. And regardless of whether the food that has been modified to survive such dowsing is harmful, we already know that dowsing fields with herbicides and/or pesticides is terrible for the soil and the nature/people surrounding the fields. For the most common of these herbicides, Roundup, check out the wikipedia article. Which brings me to another interesting article I have read recently. In the article Is it okay to ignore results from people you don’t trust? by Ben Goldacre on badscience.net. He gives a nice example of industry scientists getting the results you would expect them to want, which was different from what non-industry scientists found. Repeated experiences like this makes it is easy for us to ignore results from people we don't trust. We have come to expect scientists from industry to get results more favorable to their industry (which is why the government should have been more critical of the data from Monsanto), but then he goes on to give an example of researchers you may not normally trust, publishing a study with a result that was both accurate and earlier then any other researchers. So, it appears that it is not enough that the public pay attention to scientific data, the public must learn to think critically about the data that they are given. Consider the source, but also consider the data itself. Ask questions. Be skeptical, but do not reject science simply because you want to believe in voodoo. And above all, do not look for studies to validate your opinion, because you will find them no matter how crazy your opinion is. Instead, look at everything you can find that examines the question with an open mind, consider the sources, the methods, the number of studies, and ask questions until you are satisfied. But when some new piece of evidence comes up, be willing to look anew at the question, and to reconsider your position. Yup, it is a lot of work, but it is so very important to our health and the health of our planet. Red Herrings ~ Comments: 0
Ada Lovelace Day
 Today is Ada Lovelace Day once again, and I thought today I would spotlight a modern day techie entrepreneur. Cathy Malmrose started her own business selling hardware running linux in 2007. She impresses me not only because I am awed by people willing to start their own business, but also because she was discouraged from anything technical or scientific as a child. It took her a long time to overcome this discouragement, but she has in a big way, and now is an inspiration to girls and women interested in science and technology. I just love her journal entry about her girls learning how to install linux on a computer. Nelson Mandela is an inspiration to her, and the name of her company, ZaReason comes in part from Za, the country code for South Africa, and Reason, "which translates well in many languages, and has many meanings". I love that she decided to include a screwdriver with all ZaReason computers to "communicate that we respect people's ownership of their new laptop or desktop and we respect their intelligence to be able to modify it." Cathy is also involved with charitable projects through a non-profit, http://www.Partimus.org. LInks about Cathy: Ada Lovelace Day ~ Comments: 0
Week in Review
Lots about death this week, but lets start with autism. Andrew Wakefield, the doctor who supposedly linked MMR and autism, is closer than ever to being banned from practicing as a doctor, according to NewScientist. Apparently the ban (on him and two co-authors) doesn't actually have to do with the autism claims, but has "concerned itself with the conduct, duties, and responsibilities of each doctor". However, the findings of the investigators does seriously call into question his integrity as a scientist as well, apparently peppered with words such as "dishonest", "irresponsible" and "misleading". It is so sad the panic this mans irresponsible claims have caused over immunizations. While true that the attention over this has caused manufacturers and regulators to pay more attention to the safety of vaccines, which is very important, it has also meant much valuable time and resources have been spent disproving this link. Time and resources that should have been going to investigate other, more likely links. Continuing on to the death theme, we move on to a very concerning development with the "suicides" in Guantánamo back in June of 2006. I highly recommend reading the Harper's article in full, but if you want the short version, watch the video at the bottom of the update. I am sickened by our government, and hope that the Obama administration will do the right thing, and come clean with all that has happened, before and since, they came to power, regarding Guantánamo and the policies of torture by the USA. This afternoon I read an article in The New Yorker about dying and mourning. I had already been thinking about death after hearing an amazing podcast from Radio Lab. The 8th segment, at about 13:30, is a story by David Eagleman from his book, SUM, read by Jeffrey Tambor. I recommend listening to the entire hour, but this is the story that got me thinking down this particular line. It is sort of an echo of something that I had been thinking about, although better articulated then I could have done, and it's kind of a natural continuation of my thoughts about emergence. It is the thought that there is a connection that we all have at many levels. There is the connection between our atoms, molecules, cells and cell structures, organs, organisms, planets, etc, which form groups at various levels. Maybe it is true that at each level there is some awareness of the interconnectedness, and some feeling like loss when the group breaks up. Strange that a type of mourning that may happen to my atoms when I die is a comfort to me, and whose to say there is no awareness in atoms or planets? Next thing you know, I'll be following the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. I do recommend the article in The New Yorker about dying and mourning, and which has nothing to do with the flying spaghetti mosnter. I agree with Meghan O’Rourke, I think we do not do the death and mourning thing well in the USA. Before we leave the death theme, I'd like to take a moment to join many fans, friends and family in the mourning of Howard Zinn and J. D. Salinger. Both made amazing contributions to our society, and I am very grateful for their lives, loves and works. On the tech front, a scary thing happened with Facebook on AT&T phones. Apparently last weekend, some people with AT&T phones logged into Facebook, and found themselves in someone else's account. There is a good, but somewhat technical, article about what happened and what needs to be done about it at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. As a reaction to the crazy ruling recently by the Supreme Court, Murray Hill Inc. is running for congress. Hmmm. Interesting article about skunk weed. According to the article, "studies have shown that pure, synthetic THC causes transient psychosis in 40 to 50 per cent of healthy people". Apparently, there is normally a compound in weed, cannabidiol (CBD), that counteracts the psychosis producing effects of THC. Guess we should stick to the other strains... Finally, time for some fun. Start with the Ultimate Graphic Novel (in Six Panels). The first comment was almost as good as the novel. Also discovered a great music site, http://digital.thinkindie.com, and found a cool new video, Anna Rose "Picture":
Week in Review ~ Comments: 0
LDAP
Techby maria on 27.05.2009 - 16:30 What a struggle. Normally I post things like this in my Work directory, but I wanted people to be able to post comments, so I'm posting here. Consider it a constant work in progress, as I will continue to learn about ldap. ldap running on port 389 can use tls or not. This is so you can do anonymous binds (as far as I can figure, there is no reason to require an encrypted connection to find out public information when not using a password). So what I want to figure out is if the ldap server can require tls for all queries that require a password. Presumably, we have already decided which ldap entries are private enough to require a password with slapd.conf ACLs. rootdn can be used for initial setup, but best to setup a user in the database to be admin, and then get rid of rootdn. Adding test gnutls: on server: gnutls-serv --x509certfile /etc/ldap/certs/server.crt \
--x509keyfile /etc/ldap/certs/server.key
on a client (needs gnutls-cli and cafile):
will give cert info:
test tls with ldap:
ldap error codes: http://www.zytrax.com/books/ldap/ch12/ LDAP ~ Comments: 0
Email is Evil
Techby maria on 22.04.2009 - 01:45 Recently I came across this blog post, The Email Problem and How to Solve it. I wouldn't say there were a whole lot of solutions presented, but it got me thinking about how much time I spend checking email. Part of the problem is that many of us are tied to email in a fundamental way for our jobs. Right now I am having problems with computers overheating, so if I am not right next to the computer room, and checking the temperature as regularly as I check my email, then I do need to be checking my email often, to make sure I am not getting an email from the server telling me, "hey, I'm overheating, do something!" My job being computer admin, there are all kinds of reasons why I have to be checking my email regularly. But it is a major distraction, and it is often difficult to get back on task after checking it. I think one solution that the author did not really touch on is to expand the tagging ability of emails and the filtering of alerts. Right now we can tag emails after we have read them as important, but other than using capital letters in the subject, it is difficult to tag an email before you send it. It would be great if I could filter my email alerts to critical sometimes, kind of like a 'do not disturb except during emergencies' sign, and only be told about servers overheating or other true emergencies when I am in the middle of some programming that takes all of my concentration. Or even creating different levels of alerts would be a good start, for example, when I am in critical work mode, I only want to know about emails from my computers and my boss. Email is Evil ~ Comments: 1
Ada Lovelace Day
It has become obvious that women need to see female role models, in order to persevere and thrive in male-dominated fields. So, Suw Charman-Anderson announced that she would post a blog if 1000 other people also promised to post a blog about a woman they admire who has excelled in technology. She is calling it Ada Lovelace Day in honor of one of the world's first computer programmers. So, I signed the pledge, and talked to my daughter Tanika about it. She told me that a woman invented the dishwasher, which I did not know, and recommended I look into that. Josephine Cochrane did invent the first workable mechanical machine to wash dishes. Apparently she had grown tired of her servants breaking her dishes, and is quoted to have said, "If nobody else is going to invent a dishwashing machine, I'll do it myself." I love it. She designed a wheel that set inside a copper boiler, and held several different compartments made of wire to hold different types of dishes. A motor turned the wheel and pumped hot soapy water from the bottom of the boiler. I love the image I have in my head of her in the early 1880's at work in the shed behind her house, hammering pieces of hardware to a copper wash-boiler. She received a patent for it in 1886, and founded the Garis-Cochran Dish-Washing Company to produce it, which later became the KitchenAid part of the Whirlpool Corporation. Another great quote: “Women are inventive, the common opinion to the contrary notwithstanding. You see, we are not given a mechanical education, and that is a great handicap. It was to me—not in the way you suppose, however. I couldn’t get men to do the things I wanted in my way until they had tried and failed in their own. And that was costly for me. They knew I knew nothing, academically, about mechanics, and they insisted on having their own way with my invention until they convinced themselves my way was the better, no matter how I had arrived at it.” Things were definitely difficult for women in the late 19th century, both as inventors and business owners, and she should be applauded as much for her bravery in getting into business as she was for the invention itself. Another quote, regarding the first sale she made, to a large hotel in Chicago, “You asked me what was the hardest part of getting into business,” Mrs. Cochrane recalled for the reporter for the Record-Herald. “That was almost the hardest thing I ever did, I think, crossing the great lobby of the Sherman House alone. You cannot imagine what it was like in those days, twenty-five years ago, for a woman to cross a hotel lobby alone. I had never been anywhere without my husband or father —the lobby seemed a mile wide. I thought I should faint at every step, but I didn’t—and I got an $800 order as my reward.” picture and some background from Hall of Fame inventor profile Ada Lovelace Day ~ Comments: 1
Cool new toy
This just looks like a bunch of fun: In completely unrelated news, I also liked this post about the theory of evolution: http://www.talkorigins.org/origins/postmonth/nov05.html Finally, here is a cool black hole demo. http://www.thinktechnologies.com/portfolio/demos/Blackhole.html Cool new toy ~ Comments: 0
geeking out
Techby Maria on 21.11.2007 - 03:19 The other day, David told me that there existed some sort of external tray that you could set internal drives into so you could access them easily. I got very excited about this, so I looked around. I found something very sweet: http://www.cooldrives.com/ide-ata-adapter-sata-hard-drive-adapter.html You can hook up the hard drive to this cable and plug it into a usb port. How cool is that? That will tremendously cut down on the time I spend opening computer boxes and moving hard drives around! Can't wait to get it. Speaking of playing with hard drives, I finally did some research about ide/ata hard drives and cables. I use to think there was something wrong with some of my motherboards and/or cables, because of strange behavior regarding what drive was being considered the boot drive, or even whether drives would show up in bios. Turns out there are two different kinds of ide/ata cables. Some of them don't respect the cable select setting. Sometimes adding a hard drive to a cable causes the position of the master to change. So, if you thought you could just add in a second hard drive, boot from the original, and check to see what was on the second hard drive, nope, now it will try to boot from the second hard drive. There is a good reference about how the cables work here: http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/ide/confCS-c.html I am deeply embarrassed by how long it took me to look this up, but very glad I finally did. Explains a lot... I think part of the reason that it took so long is that most of the time when I am dealing with moving drives around it is when I am dealing with some failure, and so I assumed it was part of the failure. It looks like www.pcguide.com has a lot of good information about all kinds of computer hardware. geeking out ~ Comments: 0
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